The Revelation of the Mind
by Israninfol
Summary: Trigon's back, and he means business. Can Raven conquer her emotions and her father? Can Beast Boy finally get a satisfactory date with the violent violethaired vixen? Can Robin and Starfire finally go out? Finished.
1. The Red Letter

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_This chapter is brought to you in part by YRProcks66, without whom this chapter would be lost. My infinite gratitude goes out to him/her for saving me from (gasp!) having to rewrite this chapter._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Some common side effects include drymouth, nausea, and sudden death syndrome. Most symptoms are mild or severe. _

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

A door creaked open slowly, and the hall was suddenly dimly illuminated by the glowing green eyes of a young alien girl. The eyes, along with the rest of the body, drifted slowly out into the hallway. Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, or Starfire to her Earthling friends, her head as usual filled with nothing but happy thoughts, drifted down the hall, humming some long-forgotten Tamaranian air. Her smile faltered slightly when the none-too-pleasant odor of some sort of cooked tofu byproduct wafted past her.

'Oh no,' thought Starfire dismally. 'Not more soy bean products for breakfast! Is there nothing else that beast boy is capable of making?'

Sure enough, just at that moment, a round, grinning, green face poked out from the kitchen into the hallway.

"Hey Star!," cried out the ever-jovial Beast Boy, flecks of something vaguely resembling tofu on the white shirt he wore.

"Soybean products again, Beast Boy?" replied Starfire, making a beeline for the sanctity of a bowl of Honey Combs.

Beast Boy pouted at Starfire, who was now thoroughly engrossed in the slightly soggy and yet slightly sweet experience that was Honey Combs. "My food isn't that bad, Star. You just gave up on me too early!"

Starfire was about to retort when, with a whoosh, the daily mail shot up through the vacuum tube and deposited itself neatly on the living room floor. Starfire glanced over at the mail. 'These earthlings are such wasters of trees', she thought angrily. 'Nothing but the usual requests of payment and suggestions of shopping.'

And then her eyes caught a small glimpse of a red, shinny envelope. 'Maybe I spoke too soon', thought the young Tamaranian, smiling at the odd twist of fate. She launched herself from the kitchen, flew towards the pile of mail on the floor, and was about to snatch up the red envelope when a hand snatched from under her nose. Starfire was so shocked by this revelation that she seemed to forget for a moment that she was flying. She was about to look around and see who had stolen the red envelope from her gaze when, with a WHUMPH, she slammed bodily into the couch.

"Jumpy today, aren't we?" said a voice that the still-dazed Starfire immediately recognized as belonging to Robin. He was grinning and holding the red envelope, a small twinkle in his green eyes.  
Starfire smiled sheepishly, and, to her horror, began to blush slightly. 'Why do I blush as such? It is only Friend Robin. It is not as if we are, how do they say, together.'

But as the young princess from Tamaran sat there watching the boy in front of her open the red envelope, she wondered, not for the first time, if that was really true.


	2. Raven's Secret

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Do not insert metal items into socket. Do not operate heavy machinery after use. Contents may be hot. Ask your doctor before using this product._

_And now, on with the show._

The blue-hooded figure moved silently down the hallway and approached the midnight glow of the kitchen of Titans Tower. The figure stopped in front of the refrigerator, and, with a sound as silent as a beetle's breath, drifted to the floor. Metrion of Azerath, or Raven to those who knew her on Earth, was unusually hungry. Maybe it was the unusual flashes of green that pervaded her usually unbroken sleep. Maybe it was the intense fighting that the team had been engaged in the entire previous week. Maybe she just needed a sandwich.

Raven was searching for the sliced turkey among various moldy blue unmentionables when she noticed something strange out of the corner of her eye. She looked down and saw the shadow where the refrigerator light hit her legs. Crossing that shadow was another shadow she expected: that created by the nightlight left on to guide roving Titans to their nocturnal meals like moths to a porch light. However, crossing that second shadow was a third shadow wholly unexpected.

Raven looked up, and saw that a light next to the couch was on. Next to that light, the familiar green changeling was sitting on the couch in front of the television. The television was off, so Beast Boy was obviously not watching that. He was sitting with his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands, pointed towards the window.

'Strange way to sleep' thought Raven stupidly, before she realized that Beast Boy couldn't possibly be asleep, and mentally scolded herself for her idiocy. She grabbed her sandwich and drifted over to the hunched form. "You're up late," she said, by way of a greeting.

"Couldn't sleep," replied Beast Boy, his usually jovial manner strangely absent.

"Thinking about her?" inquired Raven gently.

Beast Boy nodded.

"You know, Garfield, I must admit, I never really had any respect for Terra. No fondness towards her. Not until the end at least. Maybe I was worried she'd steal one of us away. You, maybe."

At these last words, Beast Boy came out of his trance and stared at Raven, a look of confusion on his face. "Me, maybe? Whaddya mean by that?"

Raven, to Beast Boy's surprise and pleasure, turned bright red and looked horrified. She muttered something unintelligible and bolted from the room.

Beast Boy sat alone once again in the dark room contemplating what the young sorceress had just uttered. Why had she singled him out? Why had she mentioned only him, and not the other three? What was it about Garfield Logan that made him of importance to the unfeeling Raven, Metrion of Azerath?


	3. Green Is Okay

First, a note or two: 

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. 'Plorhtack' is, as far as I know, entirely my invention. Caution: Contents may explode if heated. Children under twelve: consult a physician. Keep hands and feet clear at all times._

_And now, on with the show_

_

* * *

_

Beast Boy sat there for a long time that night, pondering his taciturn friend's last words. He tried changing into various animals - sometimes thinking from the cunning perspective of a tiger or the patient perspective of a tortoise gave him useful alternate perspectives on a problem - but that night, his powers were to be of no use. Did she, or didn't she? Was he just making a mountain out of a mole-hill, or was there some sense in his thoughts? Finally, at three in the morning, Beast Boy stood up, stared angrily at the moon, and silent screamed at it.

"I don't know!"

* * *

The boy named Robin grinned mischievously. 'What better chance?' he thought. But then he looked up. He saw the green eyes, the auburn hair. He faltered. 

"Is something troubling you, friend Robin?" asked Starfire concernedly. "You appear to be experiencing a great internal dilemma."

"No," replied Robin. "I'm, uh, just thinking about, um, stuff." He scolded himself at his words. 'Stuff? STUFF?! What kind of bumbling buffoon are you?' thought Robin. Then he smiled inwardly. Despite her naive nature, Starfire had the uncanny ability to read others' feelings. It wasn't invasive, like mind-reading that Raven could do. It was more of a hypersensitivity to others' pains and pleasures.

"Are you sure, Robin?" asked an even-more-concerned Starfire. "You seem to have lost your power to communicate in connected sentences. On my planet, people only speak in such fragments after drinking copious amounts of wine at the festival of Plorhtack."

"No," replied Robin, "I'm fine. Thanks Starfire." But to himself, he thought differently. 'Drunk, Starfire? No, not on alcohol. But maybe just a little intoxicated.'

* * *

Raven shot up violently from her bed, her usually emotionless, slightly disapproving eyes wide with terror. She fought to control her wild emotions, breathing deeply and try to find her center. 'It was just a stupid dream', she thought to herself angrily. Then she realized her anger, and tried to subdue that too. "_Fuck!_"she thought, as the lampshade next to her bed burst, showering her with glass. 

Raven half lay, half threw herself down on her bed, closed her eyes, and stubbornly tried to shut out the world. A few minutes later, the purple sorceress had dreams of green. She smiled. Green was okay. Peaceful, she thought contentedly from the midst of her dream. Not like red. Trigon red. This was green. Grass green. Leaf green. Or maybe something else.

Raven snickered, an action which unfortunately also woke her up again. 'Damnit,' she thought, though with not nearly as much anger this time. She didn't even sit up this time, but just closed her eyes, and smiled slightly.


	4. Her Purple Highness

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. For external use only. Do not use near large bodies of water. _

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not update unless I get reviews._

_For those of you who are Cyborg fans, I regret to inform you that he will not play a large part in this story. He will, of course, show up later, but this is mainly a story of mind games between Raven and Beast boy, and Robin and Starfire. Cyborg simply doesn't factor into this equation in my story. He will make appearances though!_

_Also, in response to the criticism that I've placed this in the comic section, I could really care less. I didn't mention a comic company for the very reason that I didn't want people jumping up and saying "oooh, this's wrong, that's wrong." I also believe that, since the cartoon show was directly based off of the comic, it is nearly as much a comic as anything else. Please read the beginning of this notes section if you are still offended at my lack of faith towards a particular comic. _

_Okay, enough ranting for now._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

"Dude, everyone knows. It's not a secret or anything."

"Shut up, Garfield. You guys knowing is one thing. Me telling _her_ is another."

Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg sat on the couch in the Tower lounge, arguing over the contents of the red envelope, which turned out to be an invitation to a local dance. Ironically, they didn't have the usual problem of deciding whom to ask – they had known that right away. However, they did have one major setback, in that none of the three super heroes, who had all vanquished 40-foot monsters, crossed lakes of lava, and fought hordes of highly trained robotic ninjas could find enough bravery within themselves to ask a girl to a dance. The scene was typical of the three Titans. Beast Boy, as always, tried to save the situation with a little humor. Cyborg was dark and brooding. And Robin tried to put on a brave face while obviously displaying the same sentiments as his fellows.

"Anyway, who're you to talk?"replied Robin. "Even Terra saw the purple glint in your eyes, and besides –"

"What _purple_ glint?" inquired Beast Boy cuttingly.

"Oh, come on. Don't tell me you think we don't know you've been gaping at Her Purple Highness."

Robin and Cyborg both started to snigger, and then burst into laughter. Beast Boy merely displayed a mixture of shock and anger at his friends. In a completely uncharacteristic display of temper, he stood up and started to leave.

"Aw, come on, man," pleaded Cyborg. "We were only kidding with you."

"I need to be alone. Need to medi-, um, I mean think, uh, for a little while," replied a taciturn Beast Boy.

"You could always 'medi, um, I mean think' in _her_ room for a little while." replied Robin in a tone of fake concern. "Though I doubt very much it's your mind you'd be concerned about..."

Robin and Cyborg once again burst into peals of laughter.

* * *

Beast Boy walked stubbornly back to his room. The smell of tofu tried to lead him off his quest, but he would not yield to it. His only delay was in passing a lone door, so purposefully usual in its appearance as to often be mistaken for a broom closet. Beast Boy peered at it thoughtfully, staring at the single word carved on the door. He smiled to himself. 'Like anyone needs help remembering who lives here,' he thought, grinning at the uselessness of the letters. He read it again, just for good measure.

[RAVEN]

The green changeling raised his hand to the door, and, his heart pounding like a badly tuned old radial engine, knocked.


	5. The Wrong Eyes

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Keep out of reach of children. Contents under pressure – do not use near open flame._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not update unless I get reviews._

_See? Cyborg is in the story! All is well!_

_I've noticed a few people complaining that my chapters are too short. I do apologize for this, and I realize that I tend to write very short blurbs. However, that is unfortunately just the way I write. If I write too much at one sitting, it ends up just rambling._

_Miss Prakel: I am not that concerned about my fan base. I am writing this just as much for me as for the readers. I've moved this as per your suggestion. Thanks for the review._

_I've invented Sam. She is not meant to represent any person living or dead, and is just simply a space-filler. Sorry Cyborg fans..._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

"Man, that was priceless," exclaimed the large metal boy as he and his friend caught their breath after laughing for what seemed like years. He raised his hand to wipe tears of laughter from his metal eye, remembered that he didn't have tear ducts in that eye, and thus chose to substitute the other eye.

"So," inquired Robin after settling down, "Who're you going with?"

"Oh, um, a girl I met down at the auto shop. Name's Sam. I'll bring her over tomorrow – introduce her to you guys."

"Yeah, maybe we six can go out for lunch or something," replied Robin thoughtfully.

"Anyway, Robin," Cyborg continued, "you've been dodging the question. When _are_ you going to ask Star? It's not exactly that far away."

"I know, I know. But she's just so, so, _there_. I mean, what if I ask and she says know? It's not like I can just say 'oh, alright, oh well, see you next year' or something. I mean, dude, we _live_ together in the same house."

"Oh, right," retorted Cyborg, "like she'd really pass up the opportunity to dance? Miss Koriand'r was _made_ for the dance floor. She always dances."

Robin looked suddenly depressed. "Ah," he said morosely, "right, then well, that's great, except I don't dance."

Cyborg looked at his smaller friend incredulously. His one human eyebrow was raised in surprise, and his cybernetic one stayed still. The resulting effect was to give him a look of supercilious shock. "Dude," he said finally, "you're hopeless. You _need_ to ask her. She isn't going to say no. Believe me. And what do you expect to do at the dance? Stand around? If anything, she'll teach you." He stood up, and started to leave, effectively making his last words final.

"Yeah," sighed Robin resignedly, "you're probably right. I'll do it. Oh, and Cyborg," – Cyborg, who was standing in the door, turned around – "don't bring Sam to near Raven at first. You do, and your date may end up becoming a little, ah, stoned?"

"Right," replied Cyborg, chuckling, "I'll remember that."

And with that, he walked out of the room.

* * *

The few moments between Beast Boy's knock and the opening of the door seemed like an eternity. His mind worked at Lightspeed, going through a veritable novel of possibilities in those few fleeting seconds. He thought first that maybe he had made a mistake, and that he should slowly back away. Then he remembered that Raven could read minds, and would probably thus be able to sense that he had been there. He thought of changing into some small insect and just flying away as quickly as he could. But even that was hiding, he realized, at what Garfield Logan the Amazing Changeling needed to do was stay exactly where he was and follow this through to the end. Then he began to think of possible ways to state his proposition. They all seemed to start with that most uncertain of introductory statements, "I was wondering."

Beast Boy had almost been enjoying his moment of thought when, to his horror, the door finally opened, and a pair of eyes peeked out. The eyes, however, were not the purple ones he had been so worried about, but a green pair.

"Hello, Beast Boy," said Starfire. "Is there something I can assist you with?"

"Um, yeah," replied Beast Boy, still recovering from having seen the wrong colored eyes. "Is Raven busy? I, uh, need to talk to her about something."

"She is meditating currently," replied Starfire, "but I can rouse her if you require it."

"No, no," said Beast Boy quickly. "I'd rather not disturb her. I'll just talk to her later. Thanks, Star."

Starfire closed the door, and smirked. She couldn't read minds as well as her taciturn purple friend, but she was almost an expert at reading hearts, and she knew quite well what the small green changeling had wanted to ask Raven about. Starfire just wished a certain someone would get around to asking her.


	6. The Birds' Redemption

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Warning: risk of electric shock. Sale of this story without a front cover is prohibited. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again. No user serviceable parts inside._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Sam is (sort of) based off of someone, although I've changed the name. If you can guess_ _off of whom she's based, I'll run away screaming and asking you to stop reading my mind. _

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

On a small, mostly blue-green planet nestled in the outer third of the Milky Way Galaxy, an anomaly had occurred. Deep within a tall, T-shaped tower, the alien girl named Starfire by her earthling friends was angry at the boy named Robin. He had still not asked her, and she was getting impatient. He wasn't even paying attention to her, acting as if she was something to be avoided at all costs. Which, thought Starfire morosely, she probably was to him. So Starfire waited long hours for Robin to finally make his move. But the Boy Wonder, leader of the most formidable team yet to walk the face of the earth, conqueror of a hundred villains, and savior of the free peoples of earth, could not face up to the prospect of asking a girl on a single simple dance. Robin and Starfire had gone to formal occasions before, and had enjoyed themselves. But this time, realized both teenagers, it was different. This time, if both sides accepted, there would be no "innocent dancing between just friends." The red envelope had signified that in its scarlet colors. This would be a date, pure and simple, and a step far and above the friendly outings that had seemed so innocent and so long ago.

All this went through both teenagers' heads, and swirled around like a bad stomach ache. Finally, Starfire could stand it no longer, and pulled Robin aside after breakfast. She looked at him, her eyes narrowed dangerously, a slight hint of dangerous green energy lurking in their midst. "I have been taught," said Starfire slowly, "as an educated Tamaranian to be patient – one often must be to withstand the immobile chrysalis stage – but this does not make any sense. Now, are you going to propose a partnership for the musical assemblage, or must I seek companionship elsewhere?"

"Buh buh buh," stuttered Robin, utterly shocked out of any comprehensible attempts at communication.

"Fine," said Starfire angrily, turning away, "I'll find someone else." She started to leave.

"Wait!" shouted Robin suddenly. "Yes!"

"Yes?" asked Starfire, raising an eyebrow. "I believe you are supposed to ask me according to the custom? Backwards today, aren't you?" And then she smiled to herself. "But yes will do just fine."

* * *

Just a little before midday, Cyborg returned to the tower holding the hand of a round-faced, dark-blonde haired girl with startling blue-green eyes. He introduced her to the other four Titans as Samantha Pelucer, and she shook hands with each teen in turn. Beast boy noticed that Raven, although obviously attempting to be much friendlier to the new arrival – perhaps she felt guilty about never giving Terra a chance – still eyed the new girl cautiously. The six teenagers, after dealing with the formalities, all piled into Cyborg's car, and drove off to lunch.

A few minutes later, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, Robin, Sam, and Starfire were all crowded under one of the purple umbrellas of the Titans' favorite pizza shop. They immediately began to have a heated debate about which topping to order, with Beast Boy vouching for the merits of vegetables, and Cyborg campaigning religiously for a meat topping, when Sam, who had otherwise been rather quiet, spoke up.

"Um," she began eloquently, "we could just get the toppings on the side and get a plain."

The other five stared at her, and Cyborg smirked. Then an ensemble of yeahs and duhs and why-didn't-I-think-of-thats rent the silence. The Titans followed Sam's suggestion and, for the first time in ages, had a relatively peaceful lunch. 'Finally,' thought Raven, raising one eyebrow in an impressed manner, 'Someone with a little rational sense.'


	7. Those Lyin' Eyes

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Risk of fire – use 50 watt or smaller bulb. Do not throw in fire. Orient correctly. May explode or leak if installed incorrectly._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_The description of the phoenix is, of course, from the Harry Potter books._

_I don't know Raven's real name. I got that her name was Metrion from another story, so it's not official. However, I expect that her name is something completely not English-sounding. Her mother is (I believe) Arella, and her father is of course Trigon, and naming her Raven would be like Thundar the Terrible and Frizzelda the Viking getting together and naming their kid Sally. "Raven" seems just a little too ... normal. Plus, we know Beast Boy, Starfire, and Cyborg are all nicknames, so why not Raven also? Whatever..._

_There are lyrics imbedded here (and the title) from the Eagles' "Lyin' Eyes." If you haven't heard this song yet, you are as of yet uneducated in the finer musical arts. If you have heard it and don't like it, I regret to say that you are a savage vulgar in my view._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

The small green man nicknamed Beast Boy had made a decision, and nothing was going to keep him from that. He had decided that he _would_ talk to Raven. He walked up to her room, took a deep breath, and repeated the ritual that had before only gotten him Starfire's apologetic face. This time, however, he was rewarded with a pair of correctly-colored purple eyes. He smiled.

Raven, having read Beast Boy's mind as soon as she opened the door, knew before he spoke what he intended to ask. She decided to have fun with him however, and acted as if she hadn't a clue what was on his mind. She raised an eyebrow at the green changeling, and spoke. "Yes, Garfield?"

"Um," began Beast Boy with a nervous that was wholly not his own, "I was wondering if, uh, you wanted to go out to get a bite to eat?"

"Sure," replied Raven, still playing her game with his mind, "I'll go get the others."

She brushed by Beast Boy and started to run down the hall, when he grabbed her hand. He pulled her back, and look her straight in the eye. She didn't read his mind this time – she didn't have to. Raven could tell just by looking into Beast Boy's eyes that he had one thing on his mind. She let her act drop, and smiled slightly. "I'd love to."

* * *

A little while later, Beast Boy and Raven were sitting under a florally-decorated umbrella at Dante's Italian Oven. The green changeling was dressed casually in a pair of baggy cargo pants and a white t-shirt, and the purple-eyed sorceress was wearing a pair of old jeans and a black t-shirt that looked like they hadn't been worn in years. They were slightly small on her, tight in some very inconvenient places. Beast Boy, however, was not about to suggest a change of clothes, judging by the slight grin on his face.

Raven saw his face, and, completely uncharacteristically, giggled. Suddenly, the wall next to them exploded. Beast Boy turned, his face hard, set for battle. Raven too turned to receive an incoming attack, her eyes glowing. Then she realized: it was _her_. She had caused the wall to explode in her moment of mirth. Her heart sank lower than she ever thought possible as she realized what she had to do. She touched Beast Boy on the shoulder, and spoke in a saddened voice. "There's no one there Garfield. It was me. My emotions. Garfield" – she took a deep, shuddering breath – "this isn't going to work. I can't love. It's not you. It's me. I am too dangerous if I don't keep my emotions in check. I'm sorry."

Beast Boy opened his mouth to argue, to try to convince her otherwise, and then closed it again. He looked at her. "Is this what you want, Raven?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter what I want, I can't love," she replied sadly.

"I thought by now you'd realize," said Beast Boy, a touch of anger in his voice, "honey, you can't hide those lyin' eyes. You do love. You are just unwilling to admit that to yourself. You are my universe, Raven. Why do you think I joke all the time? To try to make you laugh. I can't stay with the team if we are to be kept apart by your fear of love."

And before Raven even had time to register what her friend had said, Beast Boy changed into a large bird with a long, feathery tail. He opened his mouth and let a single long wavering note – a note that sounded as pure and forlorn as drops of water on harp strings – escape into the darkness. And then he flew off into the night.


	8. New Dog, Old Trick

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Do not board moving train. Warning: No lifeguard on duty. Hold away from face when opening._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_No new notes needed now (say that five times fast...)_

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

The land around Jump City trembled in surprise. The sun had just started to warm the face of the cold earth, and it was still recovering from its nightly slumber. A small squirrel fell out of his tree with a second of the deep booming vibrations, and landed on the ground with a _whumph_, utterly surprised and slightly peeved that such deep booming vibrations had come to disturb his part of the forest so early in the morning. He promptly lifted his tail and walked off, very angry indeed.

Out in the center of the forest, not far from where a titanic crater had been dug and trees had been uplifted by a previous battle, a huge, square, stony foot placed itself noisily on the earth once more.

* * *

"I do not believe dear Raven will be joining us for a considerable time," said Starfire morosely. She had just emerged from the sorceress' room after attempting to convince her friend that Beast Boy would return. But Guilt, Anger, and Depression threatened to disturb the delicate balance of Raven's mind, and she would not risk emergence before her meditation was absolutely complete, and her emotions contained.

"So we're down to three," said Robin in a semi-stunned voice. None of them had been prepare for Beast Boy's sudden departure. They had never thought that anything could drive the jovial green changeling to just up and leave the Teen Titans. But something had, even if it was entirely not of her own will, and was a logical and safe decision on her part. "Let's just hope nothing goes wrong."

Just then, an light began to blink on the control panel, and Robin swore loudly. Then he frowned. "That's funny," he said, blinking back at the blinking light, "the system can't identify whoever it is. I don't think Slade's _that_ good."

And then he felt the vibration. A low, resonant thumping that shook the Tower. He looked at the others. "It can't be. He's returned?"

"I'd say Soto's back alright," replied Cyborg glumly, "unless Slade's decided to go for the heavy artillery and is trying to shake us out of here."

"We are not able to stop such a thing with just us three," uttered Starfire fearfully. She was right: they were too weak in their diminished numbers. Before, it was only when the five of them had combined forces that they were able to defeat the stone giant.

"I'm calling up the CamVu now," said Robin, typing away on the keyboard. Then a picture glowed to life on the screen. It was obviously some being from the same planet as Soto, but it was larger. Much larger. Almost twice the size of Soto, but with an angry, round face and spiky blue hair.

"I think it's his mom," suggested Cyborg in utter disbelief.


	9. Garfield's Revenge

_First, a note or two:_

_Oooo, long chapter. Yay._

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Sign on a optometrists near me: Will's Eye Drop Off here. Wonder what exactly you're supposed to drop off..._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Raven's mom is Arella. I got this information from __, which in turn got it from various DC Comics._

_Bit adapted from 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke in here..._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

"Dude, how can we not find a 20 ft tall, blue haired, stony alien?" Cyborg cried out suddenly. The three remaining Titans were currently cruising over the treetops in a modified T-Sub. Much like the one that had been used to rescue Starfire from the clutches of the Chrysalis Eater, it was simply the Titan's submarine fitted with removable engines. This time, however, the sub was designed for atmospheric flight; the titans had decided that Robin and Cyborg's inability to fly for extended periods of time was a liability, and thus had sought remedy by invention. A single main engine, as well as numerous vector-control thrust engines, powered the modified craft.

"I still just don't see anything, Cyborg," answered Robin. "Maybe we should go down and have a look."

"You two go down," replied Cyborg, "and I'll stay up here – keep watch over the scene." He turned to Robin as the smaller teen left. "And Robin? Pop the damn question."

* * *

"Should we separate paths, dear Robin?" inquired Starfire gently.

"No, we should probably stick together. It's too dangerous for just one."

The two friends walked in silence for what seemed like an eternity, scanning the trees for signs of unusual movements. Then, suddenly, something clicked in the Boy Wonder's head. In a moment of time too short to measure, time stopped, and his universe collapsed on itself. Like a giant typewriter, his mind sorted through lists of possible endings. The ending appeared, and possibilities folded in on one another like a house of cards, until only one was left standing. It gleamed brilliantly before him, and his choice was made clear. _Pop the damn question._

"Hey, um, Star?" asked Robin meekly.

"Have you found something, Robin?"

"No, I was just going to ask if you'd –" WHAM.

Starfire was knocked off of her feet by a giant stone arm. "_Star!_" cried Robin as he leaped out of the way of a second strike. He radioed Cyborg, and in moments saw and heard the yellow craft roaring over the tree tops. He looked back to his foe just in time to see her send another giant-fisted punch his way. He turned to dodge, but she had anticipated, and he felt a sickening crunch as the stone fist connected. He saw stars for a moment before darkness surrounded him.

* * *

Cyborg looked down from his high vantage point in dismay. It certainly wasn't going well. The large stone monster had already knocked Robin unconscious, and Starfire was beginning to wobble slightly, her energy bolts flickering. Then suddenly Cyborg felt a giant lurch as something heavy hit the underside of the sub. The craft wobbled, alarms sounding, and then dived head first into the ground. It flipped end over end, tossing the man inside around like an overly shaken bottle of salad dressing. He attempted to hold on, but to no avail. A panel rushed up to greet him, and beckoned him in to the black world of unconsciousness.

* * *

The Tamaranian princess, the only remaining member of the abbreviated Titans left standing, felt a fear deep within her heart. She was fighting to stay conscious. Already the other two lay down, perhaps unconscious, or even – 'No,' she thought, shaking her head. Starfire had to fight to maintain control.

A smell drifted across the young girl's nose. A slightly metallic smell that was barely noticeable. She put her hand to her nose and pulled it away. Starfire saw that her fingers were soaked in red. She was so overrun by fear that she nearly fainted.

Starfire was losing, and she knew it. She lifted her fists again, pulling on her last ounce of strength, and concentrated on her deepest anger: the splitting asunder of her team, and the defeat of her best friend. Her faced turned grim, and her hands glowed with the energy of the stars. She was drawing back her hand to deliver the bolts when the lights suddenly began to flicker and then died altogether. She sank to her knees in shock, surprised at her own defeat, and then hit the ground with a dull thud.

* * *

Robin pulled his head up from the cold dirt, and his head swam. He knew somehow instinctively that he had only been out for moments. He tried to focus his eyes, and saw a scene that made his blood run cold. The T-Sub was smoking in a field beyond, obviously crashed. And right in front of him, lying face down in the mud, was Starfire. She wasn't moving.

Above her stood a huge creature of stone. She opened her mouth, and spoke.

"Now Reidou will make you pay for your insults to poor Soto. Attacking a poor youth. Humiliating him. Now you will pay."

The giant raised her and prepared to bring it down on Starfire's unconscious body. Robin tried to shout "No", but all that came out was an unclear grunt. He squeezed his eyes shut – he didn't want to see it – and waited for the end.

Suddenly a deafening roar broke the silence. Robin's eyes flew open and he saw, standing just a few feet from him, and obviously attempting to drive back the giant known as Reidou from the body of Starfire, a huge, green Tyrannosaur. The tyrannosaur roared again, and snapped its jaws menacingly, but the stone giant was too large, and was unperturbed. She advanced again towards the body of Starfire

The Tyrannosaur stopped, looked pensive, and promptly disappeared. In its place was something much larger. A huge dinosaur, towering over 40 stories tall, with immense, elephantine feet and a long neck that seemed to stretch up forever barely fit itself into the clearing. It craned its lengthy neck downwards, gave a long, low, menacing groan, and kicked Reidou. She went flying, and hit a raised mound in a field nearby, plowing into it by several feet. The stone giant struggled to get to her feet when a giant, cylindrical foot came down upon her and crunched her out of existence.

The dinosaur vanished, and in its place was a small, green boy. He walked over to where Starfire was lying, and flipped her onto her back. He looked at her thoughtfully, and then walked over to Robin. Beast Boy pulled his friend up his hand, and looked at him.

"You came back!" said Robin, overcome with both happiness that Starfire remained relatively un-squashed and shock at Beast Boy's violent and ruthless termination of Reidou.

"Yes," answered the green boy. "But I never said I'd stay."

He didn't smile.


	10. Once More, Nevermore

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Ack! No Jokes! Ack! head explodes_

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_If you don't know, Dick Grayson is who I say he is (won't say more here – don't want to ruin the story)._

_The Ninth Circle is from Dante's Inferno._

_Bit adapted from 3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, and the Harry Potter books in here. I don't own either..._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Dick Grayson awoke, but he did not remember. He was not even sure of his name. He hadn't used it in so long. He had a childish urge to cry out for his mother. She would make things better. She always made things better. His head hurt. And then he remembered.

She was dead. So was his father. Dead because of a sabotaged trapeze. Dick felt a cold, unquenchable anger rise up in the pit of his stomach like a piece of pizza that had gone bad. He remembered dedicating his life to fighting the same darkness that had consumed his parents.

Then he remembered his name – the name by which everyone knew him, and the name by which he now knew himself. He was Robin, Boy Wonder, Leader of the Teen Titans. It was all flooding back now, as if someone had opened the floodgates of an enormous dam.

He tried to remember why he was injured, and it came to him, albeit in small fragments, and slowly. The Boy Named Robin remembered fighting a huge stone creature – who was it? He didn't remember that – and being beaten to a pulp by its huge rocky fists. Images of Starfire's near-defeat flooded his mind, as well as Beast Boy's miraculous – and brutal – rescue.

How had he returned to, well, wherever he was? He was obviously not still out in the woods. There was no dirt , and whatever he was lying on was too soft. Unless someone had dragged a bed out into the middle of the woods, he thought. He smiled stupidly at the ridiculous thought. Probably Starfire had dragged him up here. Sweet Starfire, he thought fondly. He'd have to thank her.

Robin opened his eyes, and saw that he was on an inflatable bed in the middle of the TV room. He looked around slowly, and saw Starfire sitting on the couch, her chin resting in her hands, knees on elbows. She was hurt fairly badly – she had black and blue marks all over her – and her hair was plastered all over her face. Despite her appearance, however, Starfire had evidently made no attempt to take care of herself, instead watching Robin, willing him to awake. Robin looked at her face beneath the unkempt hair, and saw streaks of tried tears.

He smiled at the young Tamaranian girl, with whom he had shared so many an adventure, trying to ignore a throbbing headache. "Hi," said Robin gently.

* * *

Raven new what she had to do. She had put it off for long enough, and her friends were counting on her. She may have already put them down. Raven picked up an old, ornately carved mirror, and looked at it thoughtfully. It had a gold, carved rim and a wooden handle. Inlaid in gold in the handle were the strange words _luos eht fosro dir roceht nise ilnoit meder oth tapeht._ She pressed her nose against the mirror, and felt herself entering the cavernous confines of her own mind. She shivered involuntarily, for she knew what she must encounter there.

"Hello," said Raven timidly into the vast expanses of her Self. She heard the returning echo, distant and forlorn, and a slight fear ran through her. That was one advantage to this place: being inside her own mind, her powers were relatively contained. She could express any emotion she liked, and could allow her thoughts to roam freely.

This, however, was only a small comfort this time. Raven knew that he'd be here, somewhere. He seemed to grow stronger with any suppressed anger or sadness that the young sorceress felt. He had learned to channel it into himself, taking from Raven's angry persona and feeding his own life force. He was using her pain to strengthen himself.

Raven began to walk. She started to see her personalities flitting around like bits of rainbow before her. Happiness and Bravery were the first to join her – they always were eager to help out travelers through the paths of Raven's mind – followed, somewhat reluctantly, by Doubt and Fear. The four emotions plus the real Raven walked steadily down the path. 'Still not the same as last time,' thought Raven, 'Cyborg's not here, and neither's Beast –'

She stopped. It was too painful to think of him now. And pain was too dangerous here. She needed to stop thinking about –

A tremor suddenly shook the foundations of Raven's mind. She stared around her, looking for any sign of movement. 'Shit,' she thought, 'he really is back.' And then suddenly, a dark shape loomed in front of her. It had four sets of red, glowing eyes, and a dark, menacing grin.

"Hello, Raven," greeted Trigon, Master of the Ninth Circle.


	11. Restarting Raven

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' = thought_

_"Blah" = speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Do not drive at excessive speeds. Always unplug before servicing. Warning: Contains Nuts._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Robin sat up suddenly. An unearthly scream had just rent the relative quiet of the tower. Robin's first thought was that he should have sat up more gradually. His pounding head gave testimony to that. His next thought was that it must have been Raven. Unless Starfire was secretly practicing ventriloquism it couldn't have been her, as she was sitting right next to him, and it couldn't have been Cyborg, since it sounded distinctly female and high pitched, and Robin had never seen Cyborg scared that much. His final conclusion after all this thinking was that he should investigate whatever it was that had caused Raven to scream.

Robin was a little apprehensive at this thought, considering that the last two times Raven had displayed her emotions, things had gotten slightly out of control. He arrived at her door with Starfire, and found Cyborg already there.

"Good to see you're up," said Cyborg to Robin. "I've done a scan, and I haven't picked up anything unusual. As far as I can tell from her biorhythms, she appears to be in a very deep sleep or something. But then again, no bad dream has ever made Raven scream, so I'd say we risk Her Infernal Wrath and go in."

"Agreed," grunted Robin, and he walked to the door to open it. He turned the knob, and pushed. It was locked. "Damn," he said. "Well, I guess we scratch that id –"

Another scream rent the air, making the three teens outside the door jump. "Time to use Entrance B," said Cyborg, raising his arm. He beckoned for Robin to move out of the way. Cyborg pointed his arm at the door, except that now where before there had been a relatively human-looking hand was Cyborg's ion cannon. There was a blinding flash of light, a loud _boom_, and the doorknob was no more. In addition, there was a sizeable hole in the wall and the door where the doorknob use to be. The door swung open listlessly now, resigned to the fact that it could no longer serve its purpose in life to separate one place from another. "Boo-ya," concluded Cyborg.

"That works too," commented Robin as the three entered Raven's room. They found her lying on the floor. At first glance, she looked asleep. But then, as they continued to look, they noticed that she was in a very odd position for sleeping. She had one arm tucked underneath herself, and the other three limbs were arranged in positions that made it look like Raven had just fallen on the spot. "How are her biorythms, Cyborg?" asked Robin.

"Pretty low, but stable. It's as if she's in a comma or something. She's getting enough oxygen, but she's right on the edge. Turn her over so I can get a better look."

Robin and Starfire obliged, flipping Raven onto her back. As they did so, the arm that had been tucked underneath her was dislodged, and they saw that she was holding something. Cyborg gasped. "It's Raven's Magic Mirror," he said in shock, staring at the gilded mirror. He turned to Robin and Starfire, and began to explain what little he understood."Beast Boy and I entered her mind once before, and this is how we did it. It's like a portal to her inner self. You just touch the mirror surface, and wham, you're in the dark dank dungeons of Raven's mind.

"But before, Raven disappeared when she entered the mirror, and I'm guessing we did too. I just don't see how she can be in her mind and out here at the same time."

"Maybe it is not truly Raven, but a imitation of her?" interjected Starfire hopefully.

"No," replied Cyborg, "it's her alright. Unless she knows how to create a perfect carbon copy of herself in less than a week: this is too good to be just a simple model. No, it's definitely Raven."

"I suppose we should enter her mind and try to see what's wrong," said Robin.

"I suppose," answered Cyborg. He didn't seem too happy about the thought.

Cyborg bent down, and attempted to pull the mirror from Raven's hand. The mirror, however, was gripped so tightly by Raven that he was afraid he'd break her hand by simply trying to wrench it free. "That's not going to work," he said. "Give me a moment here..."

Cyborg bent down over Raven's unconscious form and began to poke her arm with a small metal instrument. He kept looking at her arm, then looking at a readout on his own arm, and then looking back at her arm.

"What are you doing?" asked Robin.

"Trying to find the right neuromuscular junctions. If I can override her nervous system's control on the muscles controlling her hand, I can unclench it without breaking all five of her fingers in the process."

"You're trying to hack into Raven's brain?!" asked Robin incredulously.

"Yep," answered Cyborg. "Ah, here we go." He shook his hand, and the small metal instrument was replaced with an array of ten ultra-fine needles. He placed the needles up against her arm, and six of them slid forward and made almost invisible punctures on the skin. Then, suddenly, Raven's hand relaxed. "Grab the mirror," Cyborg instructed, and Starfire ran forward to remove the mirror from Raven's now-open hand. As soon as she had, Cyborg retracted the six tiny needles, and Raven's hand clenched again.

Then Cyborg noticed something. Raven's hand was beginning to shake. It started with the finger tips, and slowly progressed to the wrists. It wavered there for a moment before moving on to her forearms. The tremors slowly progressed until her whole body was trembling violently.

"Oh no," cried Starfire in dismay. "You have crashed friend Raven!"

"No," said Cyborg, at last beginning to understand. "It's the mirror. It isn't controlling her any more, and her body is taking back control of itself." As they watched, Raven gave a final violent jerk, and lay still. Robin, Cyborg and Starfire stared at the lifeless sorceress for what seemed like the longest time before there was at last a change.

In the darkness of her partially demolished room, Raven began to snore.


	12. Raven's Anonymous

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Warning: Modifying the contents of this story may cause your computer to cease functioning. Not responsible for injury to skiers or snowboarders due to lack of control. Member FDIC. May cause cancer if taken in large doses._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Non notās rēs tibi hodie habēo. (Aaaah, evil Latin! Throws rock at Evil Latin Minions)_

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Three very different young people sat around a table early one Saturday morning. One was large and partially metallic. He stared at the milk jug in the middle of the table glumly, as if daring it to make some snide comment. To his left was a quite attractive young girl, who would have looked perfectly human except for a slight green tint to her eyes. She was engrossed in a crossword printed on the back of her cereal box, and kept squealing with glee each time she found a word, attracting raised eyebrows from both of her companions. 

The third person at that table was a young man who obviously had something else on his mind. He hadn't touched his breakfast, and the cereal was beginning to sink dejectedly down into the milk. His usually tidy black hair was a mess, and he was still wearing his blue pajamas. The young man stared forward at the table, contemplating.

"I'm sure she's fine, Robin," said the large metallic fellow.

"I know, Cyborg," replied the black-haired boy. "I just can't help thinking that whatever it was that, uh, possessed her won't stay away for long. And I have no idea how to even begin to stop it..." He trailed off, continuing to stare at the table.

"I believe we should attempt to return Beast Boy," interjected the green-eyed girl suddenly.

"Fat lotta good that'll do," replied Cyborg, somewhat more caustically than he meant. "No offense Star, but I personally don't want a possessed girl _and _a self-made outcast living under my roof. Plus, he may need time."

"Agreed, friend Cyborg," replied Starfire. "Having them both in their destructive states would be very disturbing. However, it may also be a risk worth taking. He may be the only one able to help her to control herself. She may give up too early on controlling her own body without his presence."

"Beast Boy?" asked Robin skeptically. "She just about barely tolerates him. She rarely speaks to him, and avoids him all the time."As soon as he finished speaking, Robin's mind made the connection. He knew what Starfire was about to say moments before she said it.

"No, dear Robin. That is only what she wishes us to think. I know for certain that the very opposite is true."

And for one of the few times since her arrival from a strange alien world, the attractive green-eyed girl astonished her friends by showing them that she knew more about some earthly customs than they did.

* * *

Raven was angry. Someone had been in her room last night, and she was going to find out. She slammed the door shut upon leaving her room, and it mocked her by opening again. She sniffed at it angrily, and headed down to the kitchen where the other members of her team gathered. She looked around venomously at them. Raven could easily read their minds and find out who had done the deed, but she was too busy controlling her anger to attempt such a task. So she spoke. 

"Which one of you pricks invaded my room last night while I was sleeping? Tell me _now_, or I can read your minds and find out." She sat there puffing angrily, waiting for a response.

"Uh, Raven," began Robin timidly, "should you be this emotional?"

"Damnit, Robin, someone was in my room, my door is _gone_, and I don't care if the whole damn tower explodes before I find out who it was. Now _tell me_!"

Raven watched as all three of the Titans in front of her raised their hands slowly. She was shocked. Cyborg she might have expected: he had done it once before. Robin she could even have guessed, considering his reluctance to answer the question before. But Starfire? The politically correct one who would never dream of invading another's privacy?

"Why?" asked Raven incredulously, her shock causing her anger to ebb finally.

Starfire spoke up. "First, you may wish to know that there was a fifth being present in your room of residence last night. We do not know who this fifth being was, or how he arrived, but we do know that he was controlling you. We entered your room after hearing a scream, and proceeded to attempt to wrest what I believe you call the Magic Mirror away from your hands. When the mirror left your grip, you were no longer possessed."

Raven sat down in a fourth chair at the table and began to do what Robin had been doing before for the past half hour. She stared at the table, an expression of deep concentration on her face. Raven traced the wood grains on the table, touched the jewel in her forehead, and tried to find something to delay her speech. But she knew she'd soon have to say what she dreaded. Raven took a deep breath, and spoke.

"It's him," she said quietly, the smallest tone of sadness in her voice. She looked at Cyborg when she said this: Only he knew who she meant. "He's back. Damn him back to hell. He's back just when I can't handle him." She got up, and started to make her way back to her demolished room, her head drooped slightly as if she were walking thru a fierce, frigid blizzard.

Starfire, however, put her hand on the young sorceress' shoulder. "The Teen Titans do not allow their team members to bare such hardships alone. We do not understand fully all that is between you and this demon, but we must be allowed to help. Please."

Raven looked at the young Tamaranian Princess with a slight bit of awe. 'Starfire may be naïve about many earth customs,' thought the young sorceress, 'but I'll be damned if she doesn't know more about human – or Tamaranian, or Azerathian – inner nature than any other of us here.'

Raven turned back to the table, sat down, and sniffled slightly. She smiled, and, for the first time since she had heard Starfire's recount of the story of the mirror, felt safe.


	13. Reidou Remembered

_First, a note or two:_

_Ooooh, sad and depressing chapter. What fun!_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_Again, thanks to YRProcks66 for saving the first chapter. _

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Warning: Always wear protection when handling stories. If ingested, do not induce vomiting. Call Poison Control Center immediately. _

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Yes, Paralititan is a real dinosaur. It's big. Bigger than big. Bigger than the biggest Big you can think of. Big enough to make Apatosaurus look like a small pocket poodle. 80-100 tons, shaped like a Brachiosaurus, if you know that._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Early the next morning, Robin and Cyborg headed out to look for Beast Boy. They didn't tell Raven what they were doing, since they didn't want her to think they'd been prying. So they said they were going out to investigate some "strange disturbances" and walked out the door.

Starfire, however, stayed behind. She sat on one side of the couch, staring serenely – patiently – at the purple-haired girl on the other side of the couch. Raven had decided to take Starfire up on her offer of help, and was telling the Tamaranian as much as she possibly could about Trigon. She spoke and spoke and spoke, and Starfire merely nodded and listened. As she spoke, Raven felt slightly better. She knew it wouldn't – _couldn't_ – be permanent, but it was still nice while it lasted. She began to feel a little safer, and a little more at ease.

And on a world many miles from where the two girls sat, Raven's father felt his grip on her loosen slightly.

* * *

Somewhere out in the forest, near where the Stony Giant's life had been brutally terminated, a boy sat on a tree stump. He had slightly elfish features, and his skin was an unusual green color – not that there is a usual green color for skin. Anyway, this particular green-skinned lad had the strangest of powers: he could transform at will into any animal that he wished. He could, on a whim, sail through the cold breezes as a falcon, feel the raw power of a gorilla, or slip through the very interstices of life as a tiny insect.

Yet today, the boy, who had recently exiled himself from the only ones he knew and loved, was contemplating why he had performed a recent morph. He had only meant, at first, to save Starfire, Robin, and Cyborg from the giant. But she had proven to much for his Tyrannosaur form, and he had resorted to a Paralititan. Not counting his blue whale form, he had never used something that big before. Certainly not on land – it was too dangerous.

And then there was what happened next. Something he had been rolling around in his mind for days. The green boy, as the Paralititan, had kicked the Stony Giant to drive her away from the unconscious body of Starfire. As soon as he did that, he knew, in some small, almost silent corner of his mind, that it was wrong. But the immensity, the power, the near – _invincibility_ – of the Paralititan form was like a drug. He felt elated with this kind of power. On top of this, he felt all of his anger, which had built up over the few days before the arrival of the Stony Giant, pour out over this despicable foe, mother of the one who had at one time tried to wrongfully enslave the boy, and threat to the lives of his friends. He felt this anger, and he could not let these deeds go unpunished. So he brought down his massive foot and crushed the Stony Giant as one might crush an ant walking up one's leg. He had felt relief at what he had done. He had saved them. It would be alright. But then he morphed back to his human form, and saw the small rocky dust that lay upon the ground like giant's blood. The green one's relief turned abruptly to shock, then pity, and finally horror, as he realized in self-disgust what he had so unwittingly done.

Years ago, when the Titans had first formed, and Robin had laid down the rules by which the team would protect the world, one rule stood shining above the rest. Over all things, the Titans were to lead by example. They were not to kill unless no other option existed, and were to at all times to hope for the redemption of those whom they had defeated. The green boy had just savagely violated that rule, and he now knew exactly why Robin had laid it down so long ago. It was a scar upon one's mind – an irrevocable chasm – to take the life of another sentient being. He had not merely ended a life, as one might when killing the mindless automatons of an ant hill, but had also ended a mind. Reidou had a mind, and, though the small boy was not particularly religious, probably a soul. However much he had despised Soto for his treatment, he now realized that Soto was just a kid, probably relatively younger than himself. Soto was a kid – a kid now without a mother.

'That is something no one should have to endure,' thought Beast Boy miserably from his tree stump


	14. Teen Titan Property

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Small parts may present a choking hazard to young children. Do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, please give it to the guard on duty (this warning courtesy of Richard Lederer's Anguished English)_

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_I regret to inform those of you who have followed this story religiously that I will be starting senior year soon, and thus will no longer be able to update nearly as often. Having said that, I may try to bring the story to a close by chapter 20, if not sooner. _

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Robin and Cyborg had been searching for what seemed like hours when they finally stumbled upon their quarry. They found Beast Boy sitting in the middle of a field on a tree stump. He had the look of one who had been sitting for days. His usually cheerful face was bedraggled and marked by lines of heavy emotion. He was thin, and his cloths were beginning to look as if they were contemplating merging with the stump upon which he sat. Beast Boy, in short, looked like one who had lost all hope.

He didn't even look up when they arrived. Cyborg and Robin realized that it was probably not the best idea to run up to their friend, slap him on the back, and start joking with him. He looked too frail for jokes. This especially unnerved Cyborg, who could not count the times he had needed to tell Beast Boy to stop making jokes when a situation was inappropriate. So the large metal teen walked up slowly to his small green friend, sat down, and spoke.

"I'm gonna be frank with you, Garfield. We need you back. The Titans are one critical fifth short without you. And Raven –" he looked at the green changeling piercingly "– misses you. She needs you. You are – were – the sole shield between her and Trigon. She can only allow herself the tiniest bits of joy in the world, to protect her from Trigon's rage. You've got to return, Garfield. You're the only thing right now that can keep Raven here and Trigon banished."

Cyborg got up slowly and walked away. He looked back at his friend sadly. Beast Boy heaved a sigh, and continued to sit.

Robin took something out of his pocket. It was one of the communicators that had served as both an invaluable link between the friends and a badge for those five – and their friends – who had been selected to be a part of the Teen Titans. Robin walked briskly over to the stump and put the communicator down, right in the field of view of Beast Boy. He stood right in front of the stump and spoke.

"As you very well know, this is Jump City as well as Teen Titans property. You have missed two missions, Garfield. I will expect you back on duty tomorrow by ten o'clock."

Robin turned away, and he and Cyborg left.

The day flew by, and turned slowly to dusk. And soon after the dusk turned to night, the tree stump in the forest lay deserted.

* * *

"And he's back, and I don't know if I can defeat him again," said Raven morosely to Starfire. The two teens were still sitting in the kitchen, and Raven had begun to voice her concerns about the return of her father. She had already told Starfire that she relied heavily on Beast Boy's presence the last time Trigon had attacked her. "You know," she had said, "I'm a sorceress, but I can only read minds, not emotions. I made the mistake of attempting that once with Terra, and I'm not willing to repeat it. But I feel that we are nothing without each other – the whole team, I mean. I think we would retreat much more often without Robin's leadership,

be crushed much more often without Cyborg's strength, and be morose and glum without your cheer and Beast Boy's – though sometimes annoying – joking. I think Robin truly knew what he was doing when he had us five make that pact years ago. But sometimes I think joking is the yang to my yin of seriousness."

Raven now began, however, to voice much sadder concerns. She told Starfire about the last time Trigon had attacked, and about the near-defeat she had suffered. "Again," she reiterated, "I was only able to pull myself together because of the support of the others. You see, Trigon works off pain. He's a demon. It's his nature. And since I am linked to him, he grows stronger with any negative emotion that I feel. That's why I am so reclusive. I figure that if I make no personal attachments, I won't ever be highly disappointed. Brilliant plan in theory."

"But you are also partially human, are you not?" Starfire asked, and Raven nodded. "Thus you cannot escape the desire of the human mind. We have a saying on Tamaran: Joy is only true joy when shared with others. We are social animals, Friend Raven. We cannot survive isolated from our kind – be that physically, mentally, or spiritually. You may have, for your own safety, tried to exclude your self from, as you call them, personal attachments. However, I believe that you are connected to all of us as we are to you.

"But I _can't_ be, Star," replied Raven desperately. "I can't risk the hurt that he feeds off of. He can completely possess me now. Make me do anything. Hurt one of you even. It's like I told Beast Boy: I can't love. It's too dangerous.

Starfire thought deeply for a moment, her chin in her hands. After a while, she spoke. "Then we shall contact Mad Mod, and attempt to retrieve his secret of restraining you in his school. If the situation becomes too dangerous, we can always use such a system.

Raven frowned, also thinking. She looked at Star, and made to get up. "Alright. Much as I hate the idea of being restrained – I already am in my own mind – I see that this is a way of dealing with a present issue."

Raven turned on her heel, and walked out of the room. When she got to her room, she walked in, and began to meditate. She didn't even glance at the gilded mirror on the floor.


	15. Garfield's Confession

_First, a note or two:_

_VERY short chapter. Sorry._

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Do not inflate more than 60 psi. Warning: hot exhaust gasses – please stand clear._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_One more time. (Ack! Bad 90s bar/bat mitzvah music! Nooo!)_

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

"Robin, I've broken the First Rule. Do you know – I mean really, _know_ – what it's like to _kill_ someone?" asked Beast Boy morosely. "To extinguish a life and mind with your own body? Maybe her son beat me up. Maybe she was attacking you guys. But he was a damn child, and she was a damn revengeful mother! I could have just knocked her out and left it at that. So easily. But I killed her. I _fucking_ killed her. Just squished" – he moved his foot on the carpet to demonstrate – "and killed Reidou." Beast Boy, who had been on the verge of tears throughout his entire account of his experiences after he left, finally broke down. He sobbed silently into the couch. 

The other Titans stared at him pityingly. They were shocked. It wasn't as if Beast Boy was particularly strong of character. It was just that he had never just broken down and cried about a simple victory. But then this wasn't just a simple victory; none of the other four Titans had ever broken the First Rule.

For a long time, nobody spoke. They just let Beast Boy cry. Then Starfire nodded meaningfully to Raven. Raven made a face as if to say "What, me?", but Starfire merely nodded again. There were a few more moments of silence. Raven waited until Beast Boy had stopped crying, and then spoke softly.

"You know, Beast Boy, I can't say I've ever done – uh – what you did. But I've done something pretty similar. I destroyed someone's soul once, because I felt I _had_ to. Now that I look back on it, I didn't. I could have just imprisoned that person. Or killed him. Even death is better than losing your free will and desire to exist.

"But there is only so much time for regretting our past actions. You may need to mourn Reidou – maybe we all need to – but she is gone, through her fault or yours. You must learn to accept that death cannot be changed. There is no incantation, potion, or scientific gadget in this universe or any other that can be used to bring back Reidou. You must accept that she is gone, and that this universe was simply not a pace where both of you could exist. You must find whatever comfort you can in her passing."

Beast Boy suddenly launched himself at Raven and started crying once again. Raven somewhat to her horror, began to feel very happy and peaceful. For once, however, she ignored her better judgement, and allowed her feelings to roam free. To her surprise, nothing in the room exploded that evening.


	16. The Fall of Raven

_First, a note or two:_

_Sorry the last chapter was so short. I'll make this one longer..._

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Warning: switch must be in full up position during take-off and landing. Do not exceed 8 'g's wing loading. Do not insert tongue into wall socket. Cats do not make suitable footballs. _

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_I'm currently reading Shadow of the Hegemon, by Orson Scott Card, who I am convinced is one of the most brilliant science fiction writers ever. Read his books if you want something to make you think. Some of his ideas may slip into this story a bit (or not), so I'll just mention that now and not get sued later._

_If anyone is keeping track of time, let me warn you that I'm not. I have no idea over how many days this is supposed to take place. _

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

"Who's there?" asked Raven in shock. She had been minding her own business, meditating and just generally relaxing, when a voice had rudely interrupted her. She turned around, still floating cross-legged in the air, one eye grudgingly open like a disquieted frog, and peered around her room. Anything that was unusual should have stood out to her, as she had lived in this room for four years, and there weren't exactly any other regular occupants. To the young sorceress' surprise however, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Or, at least, nothing that wasn't ordinarily out of the ordinary in her room. As she looked around, she actually saw a number of things that would make your average conservative reel in disgust. But nothing out of the out of the ordinary. Raven frowned and turned back to her meditation. She was almost certain she had heard something.

And then she heard the voice again. "Hey, Raven," called the voice, which Raven now recognized as Cyborg's. "Thought I'd find you in here. I've been meaning to ask you why –"

But suddenly Cyborg's voice was – Raven couldn't think of a better word for it – _replaced_ by that of Robin. It wasn't even like Robin was finishing Cyborg's sentence. It was like the same person had merely decided to switch voices in the middle of a thought.

"– you had left us. Why, when we could have –"

Again the voice switched. It was now Starfire's voice – though, Raven began to think nervously, probably not Starfire – that spoke through the shattered silence. The voice of the young Tamaranian girl finished the two boys' thought.

"– been so much together?"

Raven turned around, feeling a shiver run down her spine despite the warm autumn weather. She didn't think he could cross over. That's what the priests had told her so long ago. "Ethereal," they had said, "not corporeal." But if he could...

'How?' thought Raven, postponing the revealing of who was behind her until the last possible moment. Finally she could wait no longer, and she turned around. She saw the eyes again. Two pairs of red, venomous, gleaming eye stared at her from behind the shadows. 'Well at least I was right,' she thought stupidly.

The creature spoke once more. This time, however, its voice was its own. It was a deep, burnt voice that flowed like blood and entranced like poisoned honey. It was the kind of voice that could steal the hearts of women or blind with rage those of men.

"Hello, my _darling_ daughter," said the creature silkily. "And yes, I'm afraid that I am quite corporeal. It's really quite"– he stepped out from the shadows, revealing a vaguely humanoid body with scaly red skin and vicious claws– "_refreshing_.."

Trigon grinned, and laughed. It was a horrible, wheezing sound, like a thousand ideas destroyed, or the cry of a dying child. Raven shuddered when she heard it. She knew that despite her powers, she was helpless against something as powerful as Trigon. He could destroy her and barely break a sweat.

"And now the tables will turn, my dear," continued Trigon. "This time, _you'll_ be trapped, and _I'll_ be free to do whatever I please. Just as soon as you fall asleep tonight the fun will really start. But first, I'd like to go – ah – exploring."

And with that, Trigon smashed a hole in Raven's wall. Bright sunlight filtered in through the hole, blinding both Raven and Trigon for a minute. Raven knew she had to do something, so she launched herself forward and stood in front of the hole, blocking her father's exit. He roughly pushed her, sending her flying out the hole. Raven plummeted towards the ground, fighting to regain control. She tried to envision herself flying, sailing high above the tower, but to no avail. She continued to plummet, panicking now. The ground rushed up towards her with infinite speed and slowness, and it seemed to the young sorceress as if she was frozen solid. Each passing window flew up by her like a glacier.

Finally, with a grunt, Raven impacted, and a little cloud of dust rose up startled over her body. Then it settled, blanketing her from the world.

High in the Titans Tower, the demon named Trigon laughed evilly. "Excuse me," he said sarcastically. Then he turned, stepped to the hole, and launched himself out.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" said Robin suddenly. He had just been about to ask Starfire to the dance (again) when he had heard a _whumph_ coming from outside. Robin was beginning to get annoyed. Every time he was about to pop the question, something (or someone) got hit by something (or someone) else. He stood up angrily and walked over to the large panoramic window of the Titan's lounge. Robin glanced around the window wearily, squinting angrily at the sun. He didn't see anything.

Then Robin looked down. He frowned as he saw a dark shape lying about fifty feet away from the base of the tower. He squinted at it – the shadows of the tower and surrounding island distorted the prostrate shape – before he saw the glint of gold on purple and realized who it was.

"My god!" he cried. "Star! Get Cyborg and Beast Boy! We need to get out of the Tower now!"

"Why?" asked Star calmly, clearly thinking that a little common sense and clear thinking would alleviate the need for such irrational and rushed behavior. "Is the crust of the earth in flux? Or perhaps our home is infested by Crassian Stoneworms?"

Robin looked at her, a desperate look in his eyes. "Please, Star," he said by way of reply, "Just _believe_ me!"

Starfire looked at her friend, smiled slightly, and nodded her head. She then ran off towards Cyborg's room.

* * *

Robin ran down the stairs of the tower at breakneck speed. He burst through the door, skidded to a stop in front of Raven's motionless body, and bent down to check her pulse. At first he didn't feel anything, and he was beginning to suspect the very worse. He took a breath in to breathe a sigh of defeat when he felt a minute pulse. Robin waited a little while longer and felt another pulse. He realized that her heart was still beating steadily, but at the rate of only about two to four beats per second. Robin realized the Raven must be in a very deep coma

Just then, the door to the Tower flew open once more and the remaining three occupants flew out. Cyborg and Starfire had looks of the highest concern on their faces, and immediately bent over to inspect Raven's fallen form. Robin looked at Beast Boy. The small changeling did not have a look of mere concern on his face. Instead, he had a look of pure terror. He stared at the fallen sorceress, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. He was shaking visibly, and seemed to be stuck between running away and attempting to help.

Finally help got the better of Beast Boy, and he stepped forward.


	17. Home Again

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. McDonald's is a trademark of (gasp!) the McDonald's Corporation. Do not insert into ear canal. Pregnant men should not used this product. This statement not FDA certified. _

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Just saw the "Haunted" episode (or haunting, or haunts, or whatever it's called). VERY interesting look into Robin's mind, as well as a possible closer (not amorous!) understanding between Raven and Robin. Hmm. _

_Also just saw the episode with Raven and the book. Can't remember the title, but that doesn't matter, so stop bothering me. One question though: I thought Raven couldn't show any emotion. Was the evil dragon dude somehow keeping her emotions in check? Or is it more like a I-don't-want-to-start-lest-I-get-carried-away deal with her emotions? Hmm. In addition, after careful review of the evidence contained therein, I have duly concluded and affirmed that anyone who proposes that Beast Boy and Raven do not belong together after the incapacitation of Terra is a fool and ought to have his or her head examined and/or removed._

_By Order of the Almighty Author of This Story,_

_ISRANINFOL_

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

In a particular corner of a certain large country, there was a certain seaside city. Off the coast of this certain city, there was a certain small island. And upon this island, along with a large glass tower, a half-metal boy, a boy with a black mask on, and a girl with strangely glowing eyes, was a small, green boy who sat clutching a dark-haired girl in his arms, rocking back and forth. 

Beast Boy didn't cry. It wasn't his being manly or anything else so useless at a time like this – it was just that he couldn't cry anymore. He had cried for the past few days because he had felt sorry for himself. It made him furious with himself as he thought about it. 'I should have just sucked it up,' he thought. No matter. It was Raven who needed his attention now. Not stupid, useless tears. So Beast Boy didn't cry. He just swayed gently back and forth, arranging and rearranging the bangs of the dormant girl in his arms.

* * *

Hours later, the group was in the same room in which Robin had been contained during his brief period of insanity after the defeat of Slade. The scene was not much different from that which had played out earlier on the ground outside the Titans' Tower: Robin, Starfire and Cyborg paced about the room. Beast Boy, however, sat in the corner of the room on a small metal chair, seemingly playing with the idea of actually taking a sip of the McDonald's™ Coke that sat poking dejectedly at his mouth. The sugar, caffeinated beverage usually sent the already slightly hyper Beast Boy ricocheting off of the walls like an Indian rubber ball. This time, however, it was doubtful that any amount of stimulant could move the frozen boy who, at times, seemed almost as comatose as the purple-haired sorceress at whom he had stared for the past two hours, waiting for a sign of movement. 

Suddenly, a loud alarm rent the mournful silence, and the four conscious Titans jumped in surprise. All four stood up to leave, and Beast Boy took one more pained look at the girl lying comatose on the bed. Then he too went through the door into the dark hallway.

* * *

"What the hell?" asked Robin as he stared confusedly at the screen of the Titan's Alert System. He had arrived at the control panel first, and had expected to see a flashing red dot somewhere in the city. However, he saw nothing, and heard only the alarm as it beeped out its incessant warning. So he zoomed out, expecting that the disturbance might be in the surrounding countryside. Still, nothing. So he zoomed out farther: state level. Once again, no red dot, lots of loud alarm. 

"Alright then," said Robin, keying in the commands for the lowest possible zoom resolution. The Earth swam into view in its blue-green rotundity, and proceeded to flatten out into a map of the entire planet. The four Titans awaited the appearance of the red dot somewhere on the map laid out in front of them.

There was no dot. This was the point at which Robin said "What the hell". Cyborg agreed wholeheartedly with this statement, and complemented Robin by quoting him directly. "What the hell?" asked Cyborg.

"On another planet, I guess," uttered Cyborg incredulously. They were all stunned. The Justice League usually took care of the interplanetary stuff, leaving only the Earthside super-villains for the Titans. The four Titans all wondered the same thing: why would the Justice League – the most powerful, most invincible force of peacekeeping the universe had ever known – leave the Titans with an interplanetary distress call, when they hadn't so much as trusted them before with a planetary cleanup?

* * *

Later that day, a small, lumpy orange spacecraft blasted its way past the lonely orbit of Neptune on its way to the stars, carrying four very different young people. One, sitting in the very front of the craft, was made of so much metal that he looked sometimes to be merely an extension of the spacecraft in which he sat. Right behind the metal boy sat a boy with unkempt black hair and a white and black face mask that gave him a slightly insectoid appearance. Sitting behind this masked fellow was a small green boy wearing a very grim expression that was completely uncharacteristic of him. Lastly, to the right of the masked boy, was a girl with slightly orange skin, slightly too-green eyes, and a hint of felineness about her face. To the left of the masked boy was a seat strangely absent of its usual purple-haired occupant. 

The Titans' newly repaired spacecraft shot on through the inky blackness of space, shooting past stars and planets like a streak of rebellious light, until at last it came upon a small, rocky planet.

Starfire stared and the small world in front of her and felt a slight fear gripping her heart. As she continued to stare out at the lone splash of color in the otherwise monochrome inky blackness, she uttered one plaintive word.

"Home."


	18. Release For Some, Regression For Others

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Switch must be set to 115 Volts to avoid risk of damage to internal components. Do not invert. Use only unleaded gasoline_

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_I don't consider a dead mother and a demon father a family, so, um, yeah... And no namby-pamby what-about-those-good-ol-team-members-who-are-like-her-family stuff. _

_Again, I'm using something from the _Ender_ series by Orson Scott Card here. _

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

The girl who had no family awoke, and her head spun. She knew something had been forgotten, and sat straight up, feeling numerous small electrodes rip away from her scalp. Suddenly a wave of pain crashed upon her, blinding her in a sensation so white-hot that she felt as if she'd explode. She felt dizzy, and wanted to _leave_. The pain ... she couldn't ... too much... 

Raven vomited explosively, splattering the hospital-white sheets with the sharp smell of gastric acid. She panted heavily, trying to clear her head. Finally, the world stopped spinning, and she was able to focus on the machines standing beside her bed. A electrocardiograph sat on the top of two other phosphorescent green screens that Raven presumed had been recording her brain function. As the leads for the ECG machine had been pulled loose during the sorceress' projectile regurgitating, that top machine showed only a single, flat line, and made a continuous, annoyingly steady beeping sound.

'Oh, damn,' thought Raven bemusedly, 'I seem to have died. Oh well.' She yanked the remaining electrodes from her body and stood up on shaky feet. She looked at herself in the mirror. The sight that greeted her wasn't as bad as she felt. A large gash ran from the top of her forehead down to her left cheek, fortunately just missing her left eye. She had numerous bruises on different parts of her body, giving her skin a slightly mottled appearance .

Then Raven realized something. She wasn't wearing the usual black leotard and purple cloak that were her trademark. She was wearing a set of striped blue and white pajamas that were at least one size too large for her. She realized that the others must have changed her clothes while she was unconscious. She was a little angry; they shouldn't have done that. It wasn't cool.

'Unless it was the green one,' thought Raven suddenly. To her utter surprise, she heard herself giggle. 'Oh dear,' she thought. 'I must really be sick to be giggling.' She decided she needed a glass of water and made her way slowly down to the kitchen.

She walked over to the sink, and stood in front of it. Raven focused her mind on the cupboard behind her that held the glasses, imagining the texture and color of the metal paneling, the cold feel and silvery gleam of the metal, and the plaintive creak of the old hinges. She imagined this, and then imagined the cupboard opening, trying to feel her mind pulling at the handle and pushing at the door, guiding the door open.

As soon as she did this, Raven knew something was wrong. She heard no creak, and knew the door hadn't opened. She tried again, this time trying to search the door with her mind. All she could see, however, was the same image that she had imagined before, playing back like a broken record.

Raven frowned, confused. She tried again, attempting to focus her energies on the one simple task of opening the cupboard. Then, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed something. The room, when she had entered, had been almost entirely dark, save for a bit of light coming in from the moon outside. The sink before her was shrouded in shadow as the rays of the moon missed it entirely. What Raven noticed was that, as she focused her powers, the sink stayed shrouded in shadow. The glow from the sorceress' eyes should have cast at least a little light.

That was when Raven realized something shocking and devastating: something was blocking her powers.

* * *

The small ship landed with a puff on the small, rocky planet, and four of the Teen Titans hopped out. The sight that greeted them was horrible. Two huge armies were clashing violently with each other in the valley before the four teens. One of the armies consisted of Starfire's people, each shooting multicolored balls of energy at the opposition. They flew up and down, always staying fairly close to the ground, zipping in and out of the battle like swifts from hell. 

The other army was something that none of those present had yet seen. Its members were insectoid in appearance, looking like large, mutated bees or wasps or something. They were armed with ferocious dagger like appendages, which they swung at the Tamaranians with deadly accuracy. Worse still, the bugs seemed to be moving in complete unison with one another. It seemed more like one giant amorphous blob fighting than individual bugs. The entire army moved as one thought, twisting and bending itself to fit every open nook and cranny.

Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy looked intently at Starfire, as if waiting for a reaction. The young alien girl's eyes were glowing with more power than any of the other three had seen before. Brilliant orbs of blinding green energy began to glow at the edge of her fists, and she fixed her gaze coldly on the nearest bug. She was about to pour her energy into obliterating the life of this foul invader when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Wait, Star," said Robin gently. "I think we should find out where these things are from before we just start attacking them."

"They have deliberately attacked my planet, my home, and my people, and thus are not deserving of such _hospitalities_," responded Starfire with a tone of completely uncharacteristic hatred in her voice. She turned back to fire on the nearest bug.

Cyborg suddenly jumped in front of Starfire, blocking her path. Starfire looked at him, shocked, the light fading slowly from her fists and eyes. "Why do you not allow me to avenge my dead fellows, Friend Cyborg? Do I not have the right to defend those who have died at the hands of these fiends? I am not afraid to die, friends. If it is me that you wish to protect, remember this: I am nothing without my people and my planet. I am sworn to protect Tameran at all costs."

"I – we – understand that, Star," replied Robin softly. "But I just don't think that this is a mere battle. I think these creatures before us are so linked, so not individual, that they will have no concept of retreat. They will fight to the very last, I think, and will never fear defeat. We need to come at them from another angle. Find out what it is that commands them, and take it out."

Just then, Robin's communicator beeped, and Raven appeared on the small screen, still wearing the oversized pajamas that Starfire had lent her. "Morning," she said, dryly. "Where are you? I'd love to help out, but my powers aren't working for some reason. Seems like something's controlling them, and is preventing me from focus... Ooo, damn, I need an aspirin." Raven put her hand to her head, groaned painfully, and shuffled out of view. She said, "Oh, shit" about five seconds later and shuffled back into view. "Goodbye then," she said absent-mindedly. The communicator beeped, and the screen went blank.


	19. Minds United

_First, a note or two:_

_Very long chapter, because I've got a lot of ground to cover if I want to finish this any time soon (And I do)._

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Students may not open until date printed on cover. It is preferable not to use canned dates. However, if you cannot find fresh dates, you can always get canned. (Another brilliant double entendre by author Richard Lederer)_

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Aren't Formics Fun (OSC, again)? I have as of now officially decided upon the ending of this enormous epic. No more here though, except that it will be appropriately sad and depressing (Yay!)._

_I think it's Cyborg's left hand that's the ion cannon. If it's not then oh well, I don't care. So there. (Throws turtle. Cyborg blasts turtle out of air with ion cannon. Author wipes turtle off face and goes and makes turtle soup.)_

_And yes, "nyctophile" _is _a word. Nox '_night' _ Phobia _'love'__

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Raven woke up a few hours later. Her head still ached slightly, like some annoying little sibling about whom you couldn't forget. She shuffled slowly down to the kitchen and made herself some breakfast. She didn't even see what she was eating. It didn't really matter. 

She shambled over to the tracking computer that showed the current location of all five Titans. She was quite surprised when she learned that the rest of her team was currently off-planet. Namely, Starfire's planet. Tameran.

"Guess I'd better see what's up," said Raven to no one in general, and herself in particular. She dumped her dishes in the sink and shuffled back into the center of the lounge room. Raven stood there, muttering incantations, when she suddenly frowned. She looked down at herself. Blue and white stripes. 'Not very diplomatic to show up in my pajamas,' thought Raven, and she went to change into her usual outfit.

A few minutes later, Raven stood once again in the center of the lounge room, muttering in Latin. "_Caelam irrumpo et stellas impero portae mihi esse_," she said softly, and a space about five feet in front of her began to vibrate slowly. It wasn't just the floor and ceiling vibrating; the very air inside that space seemed to move in unison with the vibrations, as if that particular area of the universe was being destabilized, which it was.

A brilliant flash of light rent the dark stillness, casting harsh shadows on the furniture. Something akin to the center of a large star floated in the center of the room for a fraction of a second before it faded out and began to shrink at an exponential rate. Raven began to mutter more loudly as the object, which was now no more than a point, began to emit more brilliant flashes of light. Suddenly, the singularity stopped flashing, and seem to struggle angrily for a second. It quivered, floating on the edge of existence, before a hole of impossible blackness appeared. The hole emitted one final blast of energy before stabilizing itself at about a diameter of two meters. Raven, still muttering, grabbed a small backpack, and jumped through the wormhole.

* * *

"I'm just gonna put the idea out there that we have no clue in hell where we are," suggested Beast Boy in what he hoped was a helpful manner. 

"D'you know, Star?" asked Robin hopefully.

"I do not, though I believe we may be in the valley of the Hy –"

Suddenly, a brilliant flash illuminating the rocky clearing in which the four Titans were standing, and a hole appeared in the middle of the air. A few seconds later, a purple-cloaked girl tumbled headfirst out of the hole.

"Hello Raven," said Robin. "Nice of you to join us."

"Have a nice trip?" inquired Beast Boy jestingly.

"Fuck you," responded Raven, a little more angrily than she meant to, still clutching her head in pain.

"Should you be here?" asked Beast Boy.

"Just cut it out Beast Boy. If you're going to be a prick the whole time, then –"

"Actually," said Beast Boy, cutting her off, the most infinitesimal bit of hurt in his voice, "I was being serious. I meant are you well enough to be here? You're still clutching your head, and you look like someone after about a week-long party."

"Ah," said Raven, reddening slightly, "I'm well enough, I suppose. Thanks."

The green changeling and the purple sorceress stared into each others' eyes, both with indefinable expressions on their faces. Time seemed to drift by languidly as the two Titans seemed to have an extemporaneous staring contest, each refusing to move. Worlds seem to drift by in their eyes, being born and destroyed in seconds. In Raven's case, however, the world _was_ actually being damaged, as random rocks kept exploding in clouds of dark energy. Still, the two didn't notice, and continued to stare strangely at–

"If you two have finished having your Moonlight Sonata moment," interrupted Cyborg suddenly, "I think we had a bug to find."

Raven and Beast Boy started clearing their throats, looking around in random directions, and generally attempting to hide the fact that they had just been staring at each other like frogs at flies.

* * *

Robin shook his head, smiling, and began to lead the group along the stony path. As they walked, Raven and Beast Boy kept stealing sidelong glances at each other, daring their eyes to see. Finally, the group came to the mouth of a small cave, perhaps a meter in diameter, that was in the side of a small brown hill. 

Robin looked expectantly at Starfire, his expression clearly asking her if she knew anything about large round holes in the middle of hillsides. Starfire shook her head: she didn't know any more than the rest of them what this was. "Well then," said Robin, "as our friendly neighborhood Tameranian doesn't know what this is, I think I can trust that it's not from around here. I say we find out what's digging holes in Star's planet."

The rest of the team responded with a chorus of various agreeds, yeses and sures and strode forth into the gloom of the cave. The first thing they noticed was that the cave seemed to refuse to end. It was obviously not simply a cave, but the entrance to a serious of roughly-carved underground passageways. The warm, dank air closed around them like an unpleasant hand, seeming to draw the entrance farther away at the same time as it drew them inward and downward.

Robin glanced at a device on his wrist that superficially resembled a watch. He tapped it, pressed a few buttons, and watched as two green and red lights oriented themselves on opposite sides of the "face". The screen of the watch showed a constantly changing graph that looked like the wave pattern from some heavy metal song. Robin spun around, looked this way and that, and oriented his wrist in every possible direction. Finally, a large spike appeared in the graph, and Robin smiled grimly.

"Ok, I've got a lock on something," he said, starting down the left-hand path. Every few minutes the team came to another split in the path and Robin had to repeat his act, dancing around almost drunkenly until he had determined like some diviner the team's correct next choice of path.

When they had been walking for what seemed like hours, the team finally arrived in a huge, cavernous room. Like everywhere else in the tunnels, it was pitch black, and the only illumination was offered by Starfire's glowing hands and eyes. None of the five Titans liked the pitch blackness. Robin peered around cautiously, squinting at the darkness and trying to see what was on the other side. Cyborg, slowly and cautiously so as not to disturb anything that might be lurking in the shadows, morphed his arm into an ion cannon, adding the brilliant azure light of the weapon to the illumination. Starfire was clearly slightly upset, her green starbolts flickering slightly. Beast Boy was completely out of his element – no animal that was acceptably big enough to deal with hidden threats in the shadows could also see anything in this blackness. A bat would be too weak – a Chihuahua would be able to rip that apart – and a dolphin would be just as useless, flopping around on the floor and squeaking. Even the dark-haired nyctophile Raven was slightly perturbed by the vibes of the room. She wasn't fully recovered from her illness, and besides, she couldn't mentally explore that which she had no idea about. Raven could only penetrate into spaces with her mind when she either already had some idea what was in that space or was piggybacking in the mind of someone else who knew something about whatever it was she wanted to explore. Since no one else in the room knew any more than she did, and since she knew nothing about the space except that there was no local light, Raven's power's were, for the moment, completely useless.

"Shed a little light for us, Cyborg," said Robin said absentmindedly. A moment later, the room was flooded by the blinding light of Cyborg's shoulder-mounted halogens.

The five teens saw in front of them a small device that was humming slightly. It was spherical and stood on a pedestal. Screens on the pedestal showed various graphs, some two-dimensional, some three-dimensional. Strange symbols – Robin assumed that they might be numbers in an alien language – changed repeatedly at the base of the graphs.

"Star?" asked Robin.

"Yes, I do know. These are the letters of the Pismirian system. Though they are generally peaceful people. I do not see how they could willingly have anything to do with such an atrocity."

"Well, looks like they did," said Raven and Beast Boy in unison.


	20. Revenge Unfocused

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. The Ender's Game series is copyrighted by Orson Scott Card. Use only #2 pencil when filling in ovals. Unlawful doing of stuff with the story contained herein may lead to fines in excess of $_(1/0)_ and/or removal of certain body parts. This message brought to you by the letter ", the number ð/2, and the color chartreuse._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_I was planning to make this chapter the last and thus make it appropriately pensive and depressing, but an unexpected event came along quite uninvitedly and decided to rudely interrupt my pensively depressing (depressively pensive?) writing: I got an 800 on the writing SATII. Never really thought that'd happen. Taketh ye that, ye Foul Denizens of the Lit Department._

_Anyway, as a result this is not the last chapter. Maybe one or two more, if I can connect the end well enough._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

For the second time in only a few hours, the small, yellowish-orange spacecraft touched down gently with a puff of dust on an alien world. For the second time in only a few hours, the hatch of that small, yellowish-orange spacecraft opened. And or the second time in only a few hours, a group of teenagers tumbled out of the craft. 

The five Titans stepped out into this second alien world, being careful not to touch the sides of their spacecraft. Robin had recently installed a system on the spacecraft that would allow the outer shell of the craft to act as a heat sink for the cooling engines when they were not running. The benefit to this system was two-fold: first, it would allow the dangerously hot fusion drive engines to cool more rapidly; secondly, it would act as a heat shock to (hopefully) kill any stowaway pathogens that had hitched a ride from planet to planet. The last thing the Titans wanted on their hands was to be responsible for a planet-wide epidemic all on account of a lack of sterility in their space-traveling.

Robin looked at Starfire expectantly, waiting for her to introduce this new planet to the rest of the team.

* * *

Starfire, however, merely stared with open-mouthed shock at the landscape in front of her. 'This visage cannot be correct,' she thought in panicked disbelief. She shook her head, trying to clear her vision. Maybe her eyes were blurred or something. She looked again. 

No, it was still the same. Starfire turned to Robin. "Are you sure that this is the correct planet, Friend Robin?"

"It's where the computer showed, so I'd say so. The computer's designed to be able to detect one person on a planet 3 light-years from wherever it's currently located, so I doubt it could misplace an entire planet."

"But this cannot be right. Pismiria is lush and tropical. There are fearsome legends on Tamaran of travelers becoming lost forever in the dense jungles that are – were – on this planet. Look, friends. Such devastation cannot happen in such a short time. This cannot be the right planet."

The other four looked bleakly at the world around them. It was as barren as the dead moon of earth, and seemed like a place where only the dead could walk in comfort. The gray and black rocks and dust that coated the surface of the planet were interrupted here and there by patches of brown and much tinier splotches of various other colors. It looked like someone had just shoved the entire planet into a campfire and had then left it in for a bit too long.

"Looks like someone scorched the planet," said Cyborg incredulously. He bent down and squatted near a pile of dirt in front of him. His right hand suddenly retracted into his arm, and a oddly-shaped three-fingered pincer with a small tube at the base appeared in its place. He picked up a piece of the planet's odd surface material and, with a _whumph_, it was sucked into the small tube. Cyborg then looked at the small graph on his arm and watched it impatiently, tapping his other hand on the ground. Finally, he stood up, and his hand changed back to its normal shape, ejecting the small rock in the process. "Here," he said to Robin. "Look at this. Extremely high levels of carbon. This is definitely the work of a fire."

"Well," said Robin, "I think we know what happened to the lush tropics of Pismiria, but I'll be damned if I know why. What kind of weapon could scorch the whole surface of a planet and yet leave the planet itself fairly intact? Anything magical, perhaps, Raven?"

"Wha-wha-what?" blabbered Raven, who had been staring and the green changeling dreamily and was clearly thinking of completely unrelated magical things. "Um, nothing I can think of."

"I suppose we should start looking around then," said Robin, who was still in shock from the idea that a whole planet could just – literally – go up in smoke.

For a while afterwards, the five Titans walked up and down the valleys of the strangely burnt planet, searching for signs of what had caused immense blaze. The pair of Robin and Starfire was moving slowly through one valley, looking at the rocks and trying to determine the path of the fire as it spread. The rocks showed curious signs of the inferno's wake, like the alluvium of a dried-up river.

Suddenly, Robin heard Raven scream. He looked at Starfire in shock, and they bolted at breakneck speed over to Raven's valley. When they got there, they saw Raven kneeling on the ground. She was shaking her head and muttering "No, no, no," to herself again and again. Beast Boy grabbed her and shook her, trying to calm her down enough to get her to speak. Despite the green changeling's best efforts, however, his plan failed miserably – or at least didn't go the way he had planned. Raven, instead of calming down and explaining her sudden outburst of misery, burst into tears and started sobbing into Beast Boy's shoulder.

Beast Boy, who was at first quite shocked, was soon happy at his current unexpected situation. This calm happiness only lasted for a short while, however, as he soon noticed various rocks exploding around him in small puffs of dark energy. He was beginning to fear for the integrity of his own atomic structure when Raven finally managed to grab hold of her emotions and calm herself down.

Raven began to speak, her sentences punctuated by sniffles. "I know _-sniffle_- of only one thing that _-sniffle_- can do something like this to an, an, entire _-sniffle_- planet. It's him. I've let my emotions out of control, and he's fed on them, and now he's powerful enough to destroy an entire planet. A hole _fucking_ planet!"

Raven began to cry softly again and sat down in the gray dust, crushed. Beast Boy sat down beside her, and was about to comfort her, when ground below the five friends suddenly burst apart. A crack appeared in the land, widening as the five watched. The crack suddenly burst wide open with an explosive force, and a dark shadow stood looming in the fissure. It grinned the grin of a thousand lost dreams at the five, and all felt miserable chills running down their spines. The creature looked at them with its two pairs of red, glowing eyes, regarding them imperiously, and then stepped out of the fissure.

* * *

Trigon the Terrible spoke once more to his mortal daughter. "Hello again, my precious daughter. I _am_ sorry that I had to cut our last meeting so short, but what can I say? I've been quite busy, as you can see." 

The demon gestured around with one red, clawed hand, and began to laugh. Robin, who like the rest of the Titans had been too overcome with shock and/or horror to speak, finally found enough courage to speak, and, about five seconds later, found the voice with which he intended to do so. "What have you done with the Pismirians, Trigon? And if you're behind the attack of Starfire's planet, I swear to God that I'll find someway to–"

Robin was suddenly lifted up as though by an invisible hand and slammed brutally against an overhanging cliff. He slumped to the ground, in a daze. Trigon leered at him, and then continued to speak. "My _dear_ boy, you are quite correct in presuming that I intended to exterminate the Pismirians. However, as evident on lovely Tamaran, I have found them to be quite useful as my own personal army. The burnt planet is merely a reminder of who's in charge here. The Pismirians are quite intact, and their larvae still remain untouched in the breeding caves."

Trigon's second bit of mirth was interrupted by Beast Boy, who suddenly said, "um, Raven?" in a rather uneasy voice. Raven was looking at her father with the utmost hate and repulsion. Her eyes glowed blood-red with anger, and she was surrounded by a flaming cloud of her own dark energy.

"Raven, are you–"

Raven interrupted. "Go, now," she hissed coldly. "I'll deal with _him_."

"But I–"

"_GO!_"

The rest of the four Titans returned to the yellow spacecraft and lifted off the small, burnt planet, leaving behind a father and daughter with some serious family issues.

* * *

Raven stared at her father, the being for whom she possessed no love. She began to mutter, and lifted into the air. Raven used her energies to create a shadow of a space suit around herself, enclosing her from the vacuum, and zoomed out into the planet's upper atmosphere. She turned around, faced the planet, and began to think. She thought of the frustration at not being able to show that she loved. She thought of every time she had let someone down and every time someone had let her down. She thought of the being that stood gloating on the planet below her. The being that was the cause of so much of her pain. Raven focused on these things until a rage unlike any before filled her heart. She felt herself filling up with the dark powers, the hate filling every corner of her mind. She wasn't sure if she was still breathing, and she expected that her heart might have stopped, so focused was her mind on the hatred. A small black spot appeared on the planet, like a blemish, right where Trigon was standing. It slowly grew, becoming larger and larger, until it had swallowed the entire planet. The huge sphere of dark energy surrounded that planet for an infinite nothingness of time, before a million new souls were suddenly silenced, and the once-lush planet of Pismiria vanished into its subatomic components. Various minds lied scattered in that after-cloud, now dispersed amongst the various protons, neutrons, and electrons that lay in disarray. 

The light from the explosion faded in the cosmic night, just as the red glow faded from Ravens eyes. She suddenly gasped, her now normal purple eyes growing wide. She began to feel sick, her heart sinking. "What have I done?" she asked the emptiness in front of her. "I've killed thousands of sentient minds. What have I done?"

She continued to stare in shock at the space in front of her, never noticing the pair of hands that grabbed her from the middle of space, never noticing that those hands dragged her aboard a small, yellow spaceship.

"We shouldn't have left her down there alone," said one unnoticed voice.

"I still can't believe she did that," said another one.

In the cockpit of the small, yellow spacecraft were five friends in utter shock. One of them had just destroyed in her anger an entire planet's worth of minds. No one should ever have to live through such agony.

The small craft drifted on into the empty blackness.


	21. Parting of the Minds

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. The Ender's Game series is copyrighted by Orson Scott Card. This item complies with the requirements of the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) regulations 1988. Stunts should not be attempted except under the supervision of a trained professional. This message brought to you by my keyboard, the screen of your computer, and a whole lot of little electrons. _

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_I've just realized how badly the last chapter sucked. And I was bragging about my SAT. Crap. Now I feel like a fool. Smacks head against wall_

_10/30/04 - Apparently, Raven thinks that she and Beast Boy were having a "moment." In addition, Beast Boy did look quite concerned for _Ipsam Purpuream_. I do so like being right. Smiles smugly and, seconds later, is trampled nearly to death by mob of enraged Robin-Ravenists_

_Urk...._

_12/10/04 - I have decided once again to take up the proverbial quill and ink and inscribe the drafts of my mental being. It's getting more and more difficult to write now, as I can see the end coming near in many unseen ways, and am to the girl whom I know as the most incredible collection of carburized matter in existence no more than a no more._

_Merry Holidayness..._

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

"I'm setting a course for Tameran," said Robin as he sat in the middle one of the five cockpits of the Titans Space Sub. His comment was met only with silence: the other four Titans were still brooding over what one of them had done just a few minutes earlier. She had broken the central code of the team. Sure, Beast Boy had done that not long before, killing the mother of a now-orphaned alien. But that had been just one person. Just one sentient mind, forever banished into the inky blankness of Nothing.

Raven's crime was different. She had extinguished a whole race of beings. Had puffed into the darkness a thousand minds with the whisper of a thought. The purple-haired girl stared silently at the control panel in her cockpit in the left side of the ship, daring not to move, lest her powers harm yet another mind. She had felt all those minds in the infinitesimal moment before she had extinguished them. They were infant minds, and as yet were undeveloped. That only made it worse, however, as the minds were completely free of corruption and unmarred by the greed of life.

As the ship drifted on in the inky void, the other four Titans shifted slightly to the right, uncertain.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Raven," said Robin. "I just can't let you go on any more missions until I'm sure you can control your powers again. That kind of destruction was–"

"I understand," interrupted Raven. "I'm fine with that."

She didn't sound fine.

* * *

"Must we truly keep Friend Raven separated from us during our exploits?" asked a slightly saddened Starfire.

"We have to be safe," replied Robin obstinately. "And your planet's the only one with the capabilities right now to control her. I'm sorry"– he said this more to Starfire than to Raven –" but we can't risk it."

"Yeah," added Beast Boy mirthfully. "We don't wanna end up disintegrated. We might start popping out of existence if we–"

With that, Raven floated quickly from the room, her soul dragging heavily on the floor. The others were silenced as they watched her retract from the room like the eye-stalk of a snail that had been poked too many times.

* * *

"S-1 to mode one alpha"

"Check"

"NSRCS to Standby"

"Check"

"Fuel Cells?"

"Fuel Cell 1 is go. Fuel Cell 2 is go. Fuel Cell 3 is go."

"MDSG power levels at full"

"MDSG is barber-pole"

"Um," uttered Beast Boy, thoroughly shattering the usual pattern of pre-launch checks, "I think the shields are Raven's deal."

"Oh, right," said Robin. He fiddled with the instrument panel in his cockpit for a while, squinting, and then grunted in a satisfied way. The indicator for the Main Defense Shield Generator now showed a reassuring gray square instead of the glaringly bad, striped 'barber-pole' that indicated a malfunction. "Check," he said, continuing the pattern. "O2 tanks?"

"O2 tanks to full."

"Powerplant?"

"Powerplant indicates all gray."

"I have all systems go. Stand by for ignition and launch."

With that, the relative silence of the dusty field in which the Titans had left their yellow spacecraft was shattered by the sudden roar of ultra-pressurized oxygen and hydrogen exploding out of the back of the craft, catapulting it up into the sky. The yellow ship shot up for a few moments, the G-forces obstinately squishing the four Titans into their respective seats, before the sky turned black, and the silence returned once again.

"Stand by for staging."

With a jolt, the Tameranian ship launcher, which had boosted the small craft up to orbital height, detached and drifted back to earth, gliding down slowly like some enormous metal bird.

"Stand by for S-2 ignition and hyperspace." Robin pushed a small red button on his console. The button looked suspiciously like one of those buttons that you'd expect to be told not to touch. Indeed, it was not to be trifled with, as pushing it – as Robin had just done – sent the pusher into hyperspace, hurtling along at around two times the speed of Way Too Fast.

* * *

"Damn!" said Robin angrily. "We just _came_ from there! What is it with the Justice League? Are they completely ignoring your planet, Star?"

"I know of no such treaty, Robin. My people have never been particular involved in any interplanetary conflicts, and thus are in no need of a treaty barring assistance."

"Well I guess we'd better hop on over there," replied Robin.

"The ship's gonna start having problems if we keep jumping every five minutes," complained Cyborg worriedly. "It's built off of a submarine frame, for crying out loud."

"Not much we can do about that right now, Cy," replied Robin. "I'm not sure why this just cropped up as soon as we left, but I think we'd be making a big mistake to delay.

"Agreed," said the other three present Titans in unison.

* * *

"Aaaaaah!" screamed Beast Boy suddenly, clutching his head.

"What is it?" responded Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg at once.

"I don't know. I think she's... He's..." The green changeling looked at Robin. "Step on it. We need to get there _now_."

For the rest of the trip, he sat tensed in his seat, looking as if he would attempt to jump through the glass of his cockpit at the slightest provocation. The ship shot on speedily through the inky blackness, chasing the pain that one of its occupants had just felt.


	22. Hostile Takeover

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. This story does not turn on red. Caution: wide load. I have just finished the first marking period. Please remark on this story. This statement validated by the occipital lobe of your brain. Warning: excessive reading may lead to death and/or seizures. Do not point directly at son - may cause malfunctioning._

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Happy friggin New Year. _

_This could be the last chapter. Could be. I guess you'll know when I've finished. Or maybe you won't. Maybe you'll never know. Mwahahahaha! Vanishes in cloud of green smoke. This could be the last time. This could be the last time. Maybe the last time. I don't know. (Oh no...) (Thank you to Mick Jagger for these useful lyrics)_

_And, as usual, on with the show._

* * *

The dark fires of Hell lapped repeatedly at the stones around him as Trigon sat placidly in his lair, contemplating the coming demise of his offspring. There was no trace of remorse – or much less pain – in his blackened soul. He knew exactly where she was. He had engineered this whole scheme so that he could wipe out his pesky daughter and those annoying Tameranians in one fell swoop. Trigon had purposely provoked her beyond all tolerance, telepathically chanting the name of Raven's mother over and over again in her head. He knew what her response would be. How she would lash out at the planet so horrifically. How Robin would feel obliged to contain her on the only planet that could.

In the darkest regions of the Pit, Trigon stood up, turned, and smiled. It was time.

* * *

There was (and most likely still is) a region of space that always preferred to keep to itself. It didn't meddle in the affairs of other regions of space, and certainly didn't allow them to interfere in its own matters. This region of space was existing – as it usually did – quite peacefully one afternoon when it was disturbed by the sudden appearance of a small, yellow spacecraft. The space recoiled in disgust at having been disturbed so suddenly.

Inside the spacecraft, four creatures blasted streams of radio waves at each other, blinked at indicator lights on their control panels, and then blasted more radio waves at each other. The lead creature, whom we might call the alpha male, was telling his underlings that which they already knew. He wasn't stupid, by any means. He was just completely shocked out of all reasonable thought.

"We've dropped out on the other side of the _galaxy_ from Tameran!"

* * *

Raven sat up suddenly, and screamed. Her head felt like it was ripping in two. The pain was so great that she almost instantly fainted again.

When she came to, Raven looked bleakly around the room in which she had been placed. It was made of concrete, or something very like it, and studded with row after row of expensive-looking jewels that would make any Earthside thief drool. Her Containment Facility. Her asylum. That's what it felt like to her; although the other Titans had told her that this probably had nothing to do with _her_ personally, but more her father, she still felt like she was in an asylum. Come to think of it though, she couldn't deny that she wasn't crazy. Wasn't that one of the major paradoxes of insanity? That one who was really crazy couldn't tell if they were crazy or not?

Raven was still thinking about all this, trying to wrap her brain around this paradoxical craziness, when she felt the mind-tearing pain again. She knew what – or rather _who_ – was causing it. Figuring that out wasn't the tough part. It was driving him away that was giving her problems.

But she was tired. She'd had enough of this now. It was time to put a stop to her father's tormenting her. So Raven focused her mind, centering in on that abominable creature that was her father. She focused solely on that image, seeing the red, demonic body of her father in her minds eye, focusing on the image of the double sets of eyes.

And then, still holding this image in her mind, Raven focused on the one power that the elders of Azerath had only promised to teach her if she promised never to use it unless there was no other way: the power to obliterate a spirit. Killing a planet full of barely-conscious aliens was not that difficult from a purely rational, mental standpoint. It wasn't the aliens in that case that she was trying to destroy – it was the planet on which her father happened to be. She was essentially doing no more than simple demolition work. Just randomly dissolving enough molecular bonds that the structure of the planet literally fell apart.

This kind of destruction required a lot more focus. One could not simply kill a demon; the demonic soul could just as easily infect another source and bend that to its evil will. Destroying her father would not be a mere matter of dropping a large object on him or something like that that could have destroyed practically all of the Titans' mortal enemies. Raven would have to perform the holy forbidden ritual that would obliterate her father's soul once and for all.

She stood up and went to the window of her facility. She pressed the intercom button, listening as the faint hiss of the carrier wave announced the activation of the communication system. A moment later, a bored Tameranian voice inquired, "yes?"

"Could I have a white candle? I have some work to do."

* * *

"Have you discovered the cause of our displacement yet, Dear Robin?"

The four free Titans were still attempting to figure out what had happened. As far as they could tell, some malfunction in the hyperspatial navigation system had reversed their target coordinates in relation to the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It was like one of those annoying mistakes one makes on a math test where one forgets to factor in negatives, positives, and zeros: it seemed as if the nav computer had merely forgotten how to perform simple arithmetic. Even more strangely, Cyborg had tested the circuitry extensively with his fault prediction center, and had picked up no signs of any anomalies. This meant that either something had screwed up Cyborg's circuitry, which was extremely unlikely since Cyborg had installed numerous primary and redundant security measures in his programming after the both the incident with the virus from Beast Boy's bootleg copy of _Mega-Monkeys 4_ and the incident with Brother Blood's hacking Cyborg's internally kept plans, or that something much more sinister was at work among the wires of the Titans' space sub.

This left the Titans with a predicament. They were trying to determine whether they should attempt another hyperspace jump and risk being thrown into an even more distant corner of the galaxy, or attempt to risk the nearest habitable planet.

* * *

As it just so happened, something much more sinister _was_ at work among the wires of the Titans' space sub. In this particular case, that sinister thing was Trigon. Now, as he jumped out across the great expanse of space like a slingshot, he laughed; he knew he had stalled his daughter's dear friends for the time being. Trigon could have just as easily initiated a fatal error in the ship's life-support system, or just outright blown up the ship. However, the demon wanted to have a little challenge in the destruction of his insolent offspring. 'Not', he told himself, 'that it really would be any appreciable challenge for one with such infinite power' He settled his spirit in a dark corner of Tameran, and focused on his next task: assuming control of his daughter's powers and playing a nice little game of Iago-Othello.

* * *

Raven immediately stopped what she was doing. A shiver ran down her spine. She felt his presence. It wasn't a physical feeling; it was more like an emotional one, like one feels when a loved one is hurt severely. Though they were father and daughter, bound by blood, there was no love between them. The only emotion that reared its head in the relationship between Raven and Trigon was Hate. Bitter, cold, resenting Hate.

And then, it happened. Raven suddenly convulsed as she felt her father's mind violently attack her own. She collapsed on the floor of her jewel-encrusted room, waiting for the pain of his invading her soul to leave. It didn't. Raven opened her mouth to scream, to cry, to yell anything to relieve the mental agony that coursed through her veins. Her mouth wouldn't open. She tried to widen her eyes in shock. Her eyes stayed as placid as they were before. That was when she realized something so horrible that, had she been able to, she would have cried out in an anguished scream.

Trigon was now in complete and unwavering control of Raven, and was in command of all of her powers.


	23. The Father's New Clothes

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Do not inflate indoors. In case of accidental ingestion, seek a Poison Control Center immediately. Use only when fully assembled. _

_Please review if you've read this story. I will not continue to update unless I get reviews._

_Woooo, done school... I'm so moderately happy!_

_And now, on with the show_

* * *

"I think we have no other choice _but_ to try it," said Cyborg contritely. "As far as I can tell, it was just a freak accident in the circuits. My internal security systems are designed to only go down if I put in a conscious effort of will to _make_ them go down, and I checked over the sub's systems three times. There's no error, and, believe me, if I had an error at that basic a level in _my_ subsystems, I'd be acting a lot more like Beast Boy over here."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

The large metal teenager reached forward and pushed a series of buttons on the display readout. The ship's engines increased suddenly in pitch. The ship lurched. Space lurched. Time lurched. Reality lurched. The occupants' stomachs lurched.

It may be important to mention at this point that, since the aforementioned occupants were teenagers, their stomachs very nearly represented the whole reality of Space and Time to them. Consequently, just as Schrodinger's cat is not _really_ both dead and alive at the same time, Space and Time did not really lurch. They both merely withdrew slightly in shock, grumbled out of the way, and then slouched off into the distance, muttering furiously about how much the universe had gone down the tube, and how little respect the young generation was giving them these days, and how they hadn't had a really decent drink in eons.

Certain philosophers believe that these rude disturbances will eventually cause Time and Space to just up and leave and call it quits on the universe. These philosophers are disposed of by the scientific community whenever found, because any self-respecting scientist can't stand the idea of a universal demise that can't be wholly explained by various kinematic equations.

Both the philosophers and the scientists, however, would certainly agree that the small space craft had indeed lurched, and was indeed now floating over the surface of a small, rocky planet.

* * *

"Beast Boy," asked Robin for about the fiftieth time in about five minutes, "are you _sure _there's nothing else you can tell us about the pain you felt?"

"For the last time Robin, no. I just felt a pain, that's all. Like the most horrible emotional pain you can possibly imagine all made physical and then squeezed into your head. Other than that I just really don't know. And I'm still not going to know if you as me another fifty times."

"Okay, Okay," replied Robin. "I just wanted to make absolutely sure there was nothing else we could glean from your reaction. I say we land and see what the hell is going on down there. I also suggest you all prepare yourselves. If the horrible feeling I have in my gut is true, this could be far and away the most difficult trial we've ever faced."

The strange thing was that Robin needn't really have said these last two things. The whole group of the Teen Titans knew as soon as Beast Boy had had his painful vision that something had gone terribly wrong in their plan to temporarily contain one member of the team. They knew that they could have no idea what to expect, although they could at least count on the fact that whatever it was that was now lurking down there, it was most certainly a threat unlike any seen before.

Sometimes, however, someone must speak the obvious for it to really be absorbed.

* * *

"Oh, I wouldn't try that. You'll just be wasting your sanity. And I would _so_ like to keep that around, my dear progeny."

In a dark, closed-off corner of her own mind, the real Raven cringed. She felt like she was in one of the vicious horror movies that she had so loved; she couldn't move, couldn't gain access to any part of her body. Raven felt that she had no more connection to her own physical being than a fly riding on a car would to the car on which it rides.

She cringed again as she felt her powers being welled up and then released, blasting the wall in front of her to airborne rubble. Trigon stepped out, basking in the noonday Tameranian sun, enjoying the new freedom he had found at donning the cloak of his daughter's body.

* * *

The small, yellow spacecraft touched down gently in what, had it been covered with grass, would have been a very nice field for a picnic. As this particular spot was _not_ covered with grass, and as a result looked disturbingly stark and barren, it was most certainly not a good place for a picnic. Any picnic that one would still obstinately want to have had there would have also been disturbed by the landing of previously mentioned spaceships. As said before, the spacecraft _did_ land gently, but it's difficult for a spacecraft of any size to land in the middle of your ham and cheese sandwiches without causing some amount of disquiet.


	24. The Closing of the Gates

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_Also, this story departs from cannon just before the first of the "The End" trilogy of episodes, as, obviously that being the end, I can't make my own story line stemming from that. Although, since the Titans still seemed together after that, maybe I can..._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. Don't own Star Wars either, which is a trademark of Lucasfilm, ltd., but I wish I did. Don't know much about history. As far as I know, Findleschnort is an original word. If it isn't well, then, that's just screwed up. Taking more than the recommended dose may cause such minor symptoms as bloating, rash, or complete neural failure. Not recommended for children over the age of 18. Do not take before bed or after consuming bread, as this may cause rising. Shutdown via the Start menu._

_Please review if you've read this story._

_Also, on a slightly perverted tone, since Starfire is arguably of feline descent (see comics for details), are any attempts at coitus with her therefore bestiality? 'Cause that'd be very disappointing. Probably not though, considering that no one considers sex with another human bestiality, even though we share 99 of our genetic material with _Pan troglodytes_, the chimpanzee._

_Meow. _(ÔÔ)_ – Cat_

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Four figures stepped cautiously out onto the Northern Ysalamari planes of Tamaran, their bodies making small eddies of disturbance in the waist-high mist that covered the brown and otherwise featureless landscape. The mists quickly filled in again whenever the four stopped moving, seemingly unwilling to release its grip on the travelers. The barren silence was broken only by the soft chirping of some local wildlife, and then by the mask-clad leader as he spoke.

"Let's go," said Robin simply. His lack of happiness at his present mission, brought on as soon as they had stepped out onto this stygian plain, was echoed in the others. Beast Boy's elvish ears drooped slightly, and he had failed to make a single joke, much less even smile. Cyborg's red electronic eye was dulled slightly, and even the human side of his face seemed unusually hardened, almost as if it were no longer his face but a cruel model made of glass. Starfire found herself unable to fly. No joyous thoughts could find their way into her mind, and those that did found their way out again so quickly that Starfire was only capable of a sort of extended hopping, much like an injured bird.

* * *

"Your friends seem to be attempting to find us," said Trigon, smiling slightly in a way that would have made Edgar Allen Poe run away screaming. "We'll go and have a little fun with them, shall we?"

"No," cried Raven's mind, "Leave them alone. They're no match against you and – "

"My thoughts _exactly_," interrupted her father, as he used Raven's powers to blast a hole straight through one of the security guards. The other guard, clad in the red robes of his profession, goggled in disbelief at his dead partner, before regaining his composure. He stared defiantly at Trigon, his hands beginning to glow a dull blue. "Oh, please, you've got to be kidding," said Trigon irately. The demon waved a hand dismissively and the lone remaining security guard flew up in to the air. Trigon flicked his wrist, and the man slammed down brutally, his spine impaled on one of the defensive spikes that lined Raven's former containment area. For a moment, the man seemed not to realize what had happened, his angry expression, defiant posture, and flickering orbs of energy around his hands still there despite the iron spike protruding through his middle. Then the glowing energy surrounding his hands vanished. His face remained frozen in a rictus of pain, anger, and death.

* * *

The small Tameranian that was Starfire was numb with horrified despair. This was not the Tameran she had left so many years ago. These barren, dead fields. These dark, lifeless skies. Where were the colorful gardens, the verdant forests? The joyous brap-brap of the Tameranian findleschnort? Was it not this day Blorthog, the time of much celebration and noise-making?

Starfire was so engrossed in her own despairing thoughts that she, not paying attention to where she was walking, walked right into Beast Boy, who was walking in front of her and had suddenly frozen in mid-stride. Starfire was in such a foul mood at the destruction of her planet's liveliness that she almost shouted at Beast Boy for blocking her path before she realized that it was really her fault for slamming into him, and that he probably had enough on his plate already. She looked at the small green changeling curiously, wondering what could have stopped him in his tracks.

Beast Boy was standing perfectly still. He was staring at the ground – no, _through_ the ground, almost as if he could see something fascinating just below the surface. His face was one of concentration mixed with fear. "She's escaped," he said, breaking the silence suddenly, as if he had already been talking about it for a while, "and I think Trigon has too."

* * *

Through the constricting mists that covered the strangely dead alien world, Raven suddenly perceived four shapes. Her mind, the only part of her she still reigned over, silently cried 'No', but it was just a whisper now, so broken was she by her complete isolation from the world of possibility. Her now distant vehicle of a body advanced towards the other four teenagers, her movements steady and sure. Arrogant.

She was turned to look at the lone Tameranian. Starfire was walking a small distance away from her fellows, her eyes ablaze. She alone sensed what was really going on here. She alone knew that it was not her beloved friend and companion Raven, but the Dark Lord of the Rift.

"You will step down from this confrontation now, _friend _Raven," ordered Starfire, a note of hatred saturating her speech.

"Unfortunately, dear _sweet_ Starfire," replied Raven with an equal tone of hatred mixed with a deep unshakeable arrogance, "_I_ don't take orders from anybody. Oh, it may _look_ like I do," – she spotted Robin's incredulous look –, "but I'm the only one I really listen to. Now, I'd suggest – no, _order_ – you to get out of my way, _friend_ Starfire, as there is work to be done."

"I shall not move, Raven of Azeroth," replied Starfire stubbornly. "May the light of the thousand stars of this Tameranian night stand behind me." She held up her hands, which began to glow slightly.

"I found starlight really isn't that useful in getting anything done," said Raven, now smiling an eerie smile. She continued to smile at Starfire for about half a minute, before the purple sorceress' hands began to emit the ethereal black energy. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and then opened them suddenly. Robin cried "_Star!_" as a jet black spear seemed to erupt from Raven's hands, traveling at the speed of a nightmare from the sorceress' hands to the chest of the young Tameranian. The black spear penetrated with a sickening crunch, before splitting into a kind of grappling hook on the other side of the now terrified Tameranian. Raven smiled her eerie smile again, before wrenching her arm back brutally, pulling the ethereal weapon straight through her former teammate, leaving a gaping hole, surrounded by the ragged edge of a bloody shirt.

Starfire's brain was reeling in its last moments. Its first reaction was "This can't be real", followed by "I really am going to die", finally followed by a sense of silent peace. As she lay fading in the arms of her beloved Richard Grayson, the boy with whom she had shared so may an adventure, she smiled at him. "I love you," she whispered weakly. She convulsed once, and then the light that had shone in her eyes since the Titans had first formed their unbreakable group faded slowly, drifting away, lost, into the cosmic night.

Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all stood and faced the purple sorceress. "You have gone to far, Raven," said Robin, his eyes ablaze with anger. "You have killed a member of our team. You have gone so far against the original pact laid down so long ago that I –" words escaped him as he quaked with anger.

Trigon smiled to himself. His plan was working perfectly.


	25. Flight of the Shadow

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_Also, this story departs from cannon just before the first of the "The End" trilogy of episodes, as, obviously that being the end, I can't make my own story line stemming from that. Although, since the Titans still seemed together after that, maybe I can..._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of some large comic company and Cartoon Network. This product subject to the International Confederation of Wizards Statute of Secrecy and contains Class C Non-Tradeable Substances. Violating these rules may result in expulsion, fines of up to 3000 Galleons, and up to 6 percent of the appropriate species average lifetime (5 years for a human) in prison, or 10 years for Non-Expiring species. Do not disassemble under any circumstances. _

_Please review if you've read this story._

_Some of you seem surprised that I decided to kill off Starfire. I do have to admit that I honestly was surprised too. Really. I'm not just saying that to mock my reviewers. When you write a story – a story that comes from yourself – it is difficult to be sure exactly how the story will play out. Characters evolve throughout the story. I did know that at least SOMEONE had to die - it was just a premonition, shall we say - but as to who, I had no idea._

_Plus, I said this was not for kiddies, so deal with it :) _

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

Out on the once-proud plains of Tameran, three friends were engaged in an epic battle against one whom they had, mere moments before, thought to be one of their closest friends and trusted allies. One would normally think that when three warriors fought against one, when all four of the combatants knew every other's fighting style, that lone one would inevitably be overwhelmed and beaten.

In this particular fight, however, it was the three that were overwhelmed and beaten, for their spirits had already been broken. The kind, gentle Tameranian named Koriand'r, or Starfire by her earthling friends, lay in the low grass at the edge of this field, her body beginning to turn the ghostly gray that, like a missing sales receipt, signified no return.

* * *

Robin swung at Raven with his bo staff, nearly missing her yet again. He was strangely uncoordinated, missing almost every strike. He certainly fought with as much passion as ever, his eyes filled with rage. In fact, that was exactly why he couldn't land a strike. Robin's mind was so deeply filled with rage over the death of Starfire that he almost literally couldn't see what he was doing.

Raven shot another blast of dark energy at Robin. Despite his inability to fight, he managed to deflect the blast, sending it ricocheting off the ground and careening off into space. This clearly angered Raven, who was getting tired of fighting this annoying little human. She sneered at Robin, before clenching her fists and closing her eyes. The same dark spear that had moments before killed Starfire shot out from her hands, darting towards the Boy Wonder. He ducked out of the way just in time, and, to both his and Raven's surprise, heard a strange squelching noise behind him.

Standing behind Robin was Beast Boy, whose stomach was now impaled with the same dark spear of energy. His eyes, though, were what surprised them. They were now filled with hate as Robin's were. Instead, they were filled with what seemed like pity. As he choked his last breaths, he spoke one last time, his eyes, still full of pity, on Raven.

"I know you're in there. I know you can hear us. You have to fight him, because I still love you. No matter what, I still love you." And then, for the second time that night, the rapidly cooling body of member of a once-powerful fighting force touched the cold Ysalamari Plains.

* * *

Raven's mind was in shock. She had never known that someone would so readily give up his life for her. But then perhaps that was because she had always been so focused on her meditation. Fat lot of good that had done her, she thought morosely. Or had she focused? Raven realized suddenly that she had never been at ease in her entire life. She had always been afraid. Afraid to walk out in the street, lest someone be hurt by an outburst of her powers. Afraid to laugh, to live, and to love, lest a friend be wounded by her nightmares.

Raven of Azerath focused herself for the first time in her life. She focused on the four last words spoken by the small green changeling that now lay in the grass near her. She focused her whole self on those, blocking out the outside, the mocking thought-words of her father, and the physical pain that her father was channeling through to her. She focused only on those words.

* * *

Trigon could tell something was wrong the moment he tried to taunt Raven again and found that he couldn't. There was a impenetrable barrier put up between his mind and that of his daughter. 'So she's isolated herself,' thought Trigon. 'How – usual.' He laughed to himself, his laughter pouring out of Raven's mouth and echoing in the night.

* * *

Raven heard her father's laughter and knew what she had to do. She focused on her father now, on his mocking, his murders, and his mastery of her body. She focused on these, and felt the anger build in her like it had never before. The anger grew inside her like some roiling mass of dark energy. She imagined, and, for the first time in what seemed like eons, it took shape. A twisting coil of dark energy shot out from her head. It shot towards Robin, who stared resolutely at it, prepared to meet death head on. At the last moment, however, it seemed to falter. It stopped in midair, mere inches from the masked face of the Boy Wonder, and seemed to tremble in the air, almost as if it were a rope in an invisible tug-of-war competition.

Raven herself was behaving very oddly. She was completely still, and yet her eyes were moving rapidly in their sockets. They darted around, sometimes looking at the coil and sometimes not, almost as if she was both trying to look at it and trying not to look at it. Then suddenly her gaze fixed and did not move again. The coil of energy trembled for a moment longer before turning on itself and pointing back towards its caster. With one final spasm, it shot towards Raven.

Raven screamed, but it was not her own scream. It was a much deeper, darker scream. It was a scream of the frustration of a fallen angel. It was a scream of the liberation of a hundred thousand tortured souls. It was the scream one hears when the door to the school bus opens at the end of the first day of school and the frightened little child cries "Mommy!" and runs towards his mother. The dark coil impaled her as it had impaled the others, and then curved down into the ground, effectively pinning her in the middle of the field like some grotesque Christmas decoration. As Robin and Cyborg watched, something strange seemed to happen to the dying sorceress. Her body had almost immediately gone limp, unlike the others, who had managed to deliver nice little speeches before expiring. Instead, her body was lifeless as two shapes, one blue, one red, seemed to struggle above her. They were both fading quickly as the blue one seemed to be trying to hold the red one down. Then they both winked out of all existence, and a blinding flash of light filled the air. When the light cleared, Raven's body was gone. Only a small, black burn mark, like the mark of a rocket launch, remained on the ground where she had been.

Raven was gone. Her mind and body were gone, and with her she had taken the most powerful demon in the universe. Robin walked over to the charred spot where she had been and spoke, his voiced choked with shock and emotion. "May you rest in peace, dearest Raven." As he spoke, a single, solitary tear fell from him to the to the cold ground.

* * *


	26. Epilogue

_First, a note or two:_

_This is the second of my stories, and once again, I beg those of you who know everything about the included series not to complain. I am not trying to be as faithful to the comics or TV series as possible, so if you want accuracy, I suggest you look somewhere else._

_Also, this story departs from cannon just before the first of the "The End" trilogy of episodes, as, obviously that being the end, I can't make my own story line stemming from that. Although, since the Titans still seemed together after that, maybe I can..._

_KEY:_

_'Blah' thought_

_"Blah" speech_

_I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the undermentioned items. Teen Titans is a trademark of DC Comics and Cartoon Network. Yeah, you can copy this if you _really_ want to. I have absolutely no control over it. _

_Please review if you've read this story._

_I've decided to make the epitaph included in Latin, since I believe it's a little more solemn than an English one like "Oh drunk Benjamin Grist/ We know you got really pissed/ Oh well, you won't be missed". Also, Raven's spells seem to be a sort of fake Latin or Elvish or something mystical like that, so I thought this would be appropriate, though I obviously had to feminize "corvus"._

_Oh, and as a last note, this last chapter may appear to have some inconsistencies. I suggest that if you really have a problem with them, you step outside, walk to the back of the house, and _deal with it

_And now, on with the show._

* * *

A small, green teenager slumped into the kitchen of the Titans' Tower, his stomach growling angrily. His nose caught the sharp odor of some unknown coming from the stove. Like many smells that emanated from the kitchen, this one was wholly unrecognizable to him. He poked his head into the brightly lit kitchen and noticed a tall, thin alien girl. She stood at the stove, peering glumly at a pot in which something blue was bubbling obscenely.

As Starfire stared into the pot of blue, she could not bring herself to think. The past few hours had been so much. The betrayal of Raven. The even more horrifying realization that Raven was being possessed. The brutal, emotionless attack. Then Starfire had died – she could remember seeing herself, as from afar, crumple like a forgotten paper doll – and, miraculously, arisen again. She had no idea _how_ it had happened, but she suspected that it had something to do with Raven.

'Raven,' thought Starfire miserably again. She could almost not believe it. 'Four,' she reminded herself, 'we are now the Four Teen Titans.'

* * *

A month later, the Titans were restored – or at least, as much as was possible for a shattered team. There was an undeniably dark tone to the Tower, as none who lived in or entered it could forget that the once inviolable quintet was now reduced to a quartet. The four team members woke often without much sound, and went about their business

Later in the morning of this one-month anniversary of the death of Raven, a car pulled up to a cold, wet field. The door creaked slowly open, and the ground was suddenly dimly illuminated by the glowing green eyes of a young alien girl. The eyes, along with the rest of the body, drifted slowly out onto the field. Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, or Starfire to her Earthling friends, her head filled now with an uncharacteristic sadness, lead her friends into the middle of the field, where a plot of land had been selected. They all stood around the spot of land, speaking solemnly. Afterwards, Cyborg removed a finely-cut piece of stone, which he buried carefully in the ground. The four Titans read the inscription:

_CORVA PACEM INVENIAT FINE VIA_

Slowly, Robin, Starfire, Cyborg and Beast Boy got back into the car, and it sped off into the cold, dreary morning.

* * *

A few weeks after the ceremony, a young girl bounded lightly but nervously up the stone steps of the rock island on which the Titan's Tower sat. Her hair was light blonde, her eyes blue, and she carried a pair of aviator's goggles in her left hand. She had the look of someone who had been in a coma for years – as, indeed, she basically had – and seemed to expect her world to drift away in the blink of an eye. She wasn't to sure where she belonged any more. Although, come to think of it, she didn't think that she was _ever_ sure where she belonged.

The girl reached the top of the steps, and leaned against the door to gather herself. The girl knocked on the door. No answer. She thought of going away and coming back another time. They were probably out. Saving the world or something. That seemed to be what they usually did on Saturday afternoons, of which today was one. However, the girl tried knocking once more. She waited again, and finally heard a series of soft clicks as the Automatic Security System and Heuristically Organized Logistical Electronics deactivated. Then the door swung open, and she was greeted by a green face. She launched forward into his arms, and they embrace.

"I never thought I'd see you again," he said.

"Neither did I," she said.

And as Terra stood there on the Titan's doorstep, in the arms of the only person she had ever truly loved, she thought to herself, "I'm Home."


End file.
